Update from Stylianides on the fire in Dadia Evros

The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis, together with the Deputy Minister of Environment, George Amyras, gave a briefing from Dadia Evros about the fire in the area and the measures taken to deal with it.

Specifically, the Minister stated:

“We reviewed the situation in the morning with our staff members and based on the new data, adjustments were decided on the field, so as to deal with the difficult relief of the area and the difficult accesses, because as you know the forest is protected, therefore the accesses in this they are limited. The additional difficulty is the constant changes of the wind.

With these data we have had continuous flare-ups and a battle is being fought. All involved, Firefighters, Foresters, Army, Police, volunteers, Civil Protection are all together on the field. We did a postmortem in the woods and an aerial postmortem with Mr. Amyras, and together with the staff, the new designs were determined.

We continue – and I would like to emphasize that the fight that everyone here is fighting is heroic. Despite all the difficulties, we are all determined to save the national park of Dadia. Utilizing both scientific knowledge with the technological tools we have at our disposal, but also the knowledge of local officials who know the forest very well. It is a combination that will help a lot so that we can have a happy ending as soon as possible and limit the effects as much as possible.

So, we are in the process of opening new accesses, new fire zones, mainly on the southwest front which presents the greatest difficulty in access and management. With the new fire brigade facilities and the new fire zones, we are slowly gaining ground. For three days now the fire has not been able to spread in such a difficult area – this is an indication of the work being done in the field.” He also commented that the selection of aerial vehicles that operate in the area is based on operational criteria alone, noting that this year our country has more forest firefighting aerial vehicles than ever before (40 from the national air fleet and 46 hired ones).

THE The Deputy Minister of the Environment categorically denied the rumours on social media about the abolition of the Dadia-Lefkimis-Soufli National Park Management Agency, noting: “The Agency has been replaced by the Management Unit and the people in the Unit are currently on the front lines working hard.”

In addition, he stated: “The forest of Dadia is a critical, rare and sensitive forest ecosystem that goes beyond the borders of Greece. It is unique and of pan-European significance. That is why we pay the utmost attention, with the greatest sensitivity and do everything humanly possible to protect it.

A month and a half ago, here in the forest of Dadia, the Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection and the Minister, Christos Stylianidis, proceeded with preventive projects. We opened and maintained 440 km of forest roads in Dadia, as well as 140 km of fire protection zones. And these interventions have helped a lot in the fight that we all, Firefighters, Forestry employees, volunteers, Local Government people, Army and residents to preserve and save this sensitive forest ecosystem. Now our fight and our anxiety is to protect the only black vulture colony that exists in Europe and you find here in this forest. With this purpose, hours since the morning, we have been opening a huge fire zone in the southwest in the core of the forest.

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