Forest fires in Greece: A dangerously repetitive situation

By Andreas Gkoumplias,

Greek summer has always been a pole of attraction for tourists and native people alike. Good mood, great seas, good food, friends, and the like create a relaxing and very chill environment for everyone to enjoy and unwind after a hard-working year. Tourism is at an all-time high currently, and with current estimations, it will probably be the best year so far concerning this specific sector. However, that does not mean that all problems are sorted out or that everything is running smoothly. The best example of all? The wildfires that are currently active and that, for yet another year, unfortunately, destroy thousands of acres and hundreds of homes.

Greek wildfires are, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon. Every year, we witness a lot of destruction, a lot of people losing their homes and the result each year is more devastating than the previous one. A good example, and probably the most known one, is the wildfires in Attica in July 2018, specifically in Mati where 103 people were confirmed dead and 172 were seriously injured, leading the Prime Minister of Greece to announce that Attica is in a state of emergency.

One would probably think that ghosts of the past tragedies would not continue to haunt the future and normally that could be the case, but not this time. Although each year we are on high alert, knowing that at some point a lot of wildfires are going to emerge at the same time, we are never on time to stop them. Even worse, the neglect of the government to be on high alert and to have the emergency services on standby, in order to combat the vast amounts of flames is the worst part of this situation. The human resources of firefighters in Greece are nowhere near enough. Instead of changing that, governments tend to wait up until the very last minute to act or after all, destruction has taken place, where they would offer condolences and probably a small compensation for the damages and that would be “enough”.

Not only that, but we also have to deal with arsons. In fact, the majority of the wildfires during the summer period are not because of the extreme temperatures that we have here (although Greek summer tends to be quite hot), but because of people that feel like causing problems. Negligent or involuntary arson is also an issue, as many fires have started that way, for example, a cigar thrown on the ground, or a glass bottle thrown in the woods where there are dry leaves. Fortunately, as long as involuntary arson is concerned, over the years we had a lot of campaigns and commercials, so as to increase sensitivity and awareness and give people an idea of what the consequences can be if they are not careful enough.

Summing up, it is true that Greece has a lot of forests and a lot of spots where wildfires can start. Thus, it is understandable that it is not at all easy to guard every spot at all times, as it would be probably a good waste of manpower and of time. However, raising awareness should not stop. Every summer, the same nightmare resurfaces and every summer we appear to be less ready than the previous one, although we know what is going to happen. We need to make changes to our system to be ready for anything, with one of them being the recruitment of a good number of firefighters. We as a country, as a whole, need to get our priorities straight as soon as possible, if we want to handle a planet that is still possible to live into future generations, we need to make more changes as soon as possible.

References

• Wildfires burn coastal homes, forests in Greece as Europe’s heatwave spreads east, reuters.com, Available here
• 157 Forest Fires Broke Out in Greece in Three Days, greekreporter.com, Available here
• 2018 Attica wildfires, wikipedia.org, Available here