We responded to 4,500 fires and burned 24% fewer acres than the 20-year average

The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, spoke about the difficult fire fighting season that has not yet ended, at a time when the firefighters are facing floods at the same time as the fires, in an interview he granted to the Mega TV station.

“It is a difficult period, because as you can see, half of Greece, the western and northern part mainly, had in the last weeks the first rains of autumn which are always dangerous and can cause, as you saw with the bad weather Boris in Europe, very extreme situations… more than 20 people lost their lives. And in the other part of the country, in the Aegean islands, mainly in the Dodecanese, in Crete, but also in Attica and further south, we still have 25-30 fires every day. So half of the Fire Brigade, Civil Protection and other forces are busy with the weather and the other half with the fires”, said Mr. Kikilias.

Regarding this year’s fire season, he emphasized that despite the fact that, according to scientists, the most difficult fire-meteorological conditions of the last 40 years prevailed and 4,500 fires broke out, 24% fewer hectares were finally burned compared to the 20-year average.

“You saw what happened in other countries, you saw the extreme situations in Portugal. Portugal since 2017 has invested huge funds, billions of euros, after a traumatic year they had, establishing a new system of prevention and forest protection. Unfortunately, however, this year’s insurmountable conditions from the Atlantic, i.e. the strong winds and the drought in mid-September, caused a fire that spread across a very large part of the country, with multiple fronts and burned 1,200,000 acres,” noted the minister.

As far as prevention is concerned with the aim of the best possible response to natural disasters caused by extreme weather events, Mr. Kikilias pointed out that throughout the winter the opening of fire zones, fire protection projects by DEDDIE and ADMIE will continue , and the effort made this year with the cleaning of the plots will be reinforced. In addition, as he underlined, the plan of the circular economy will go ahead, according to which municipalities will channel pruning and cleaning residues to heavy industry as fuel, for a remunerative fee.