More fires, less burnt areas in 2022 in Greece

More fires, but less burned areaswere recorded this year in Greece, according to the report of the fire season of 2022. In total, according to the data provided, this year from January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022 occurred 9,245 fires, resulting in an increase of 3.10% compared to the average in the period 2007-2021 (8,958 fires). Out of a total of 9,245 fires, 5,922 occurred between May 1st and October 31st. Conversely, total acres burned this year from January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022 they amount to 238,382 of which 223,217 acres burned from May 1 to October 31. According to the official data, the burned areas this year decreased by 52.42 % compared to the average of the years 2007-2021 (500,972 total burned hectares). In addition, as stated in the official data, the total hectares of burned forest areas this year are estimated at 42,878, while the hectares of burned forest areas at 95,322.

The most important fire for this year was the fire in the forest of Dadia which, according to official data, burned 46,040 acres out of the total 428,000 acres of Natura, while a very difficult fire was the one that occurred in Penteli, which burned 27,817 acres. At the same time, as it was emphasized, this year’s July was decisive, during which the 7 largest forest fires for this year occurred, which burned approximately 138,652 hectares, i.e. 62% of the total burnt area.

Regarding the aerial means this year, Greece had at its disposal a total of 83 aerial means, 48 ​​airplanes and 35 helicopters, of which the leased aerial means were 44 while the national air fleet was 39.

“In conditions where 8 million acres of forest were burned all over Europe, in Greece we limited the burnt acres to around 200,000”, pointed out the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis, during the event adding that all those who contributed this year to fighting the fires were constantly at the front line with a sense of duty and self-sacrifice, under unprecedented conditions, with the aim of saving lives, preserving the properties of Greek citizens and protecting the environment.

“Today we honor the Greek female firefighters and the Greek firefighters. We are proud of the Greek Fire Brigade. Greece has one of the most reliable and efficient fire brigades. This is proven in practice”, stressed Mr. Stylianidis and added that the fires in Dadia and Penteli were the most difficult this year. As he said, the fire in Dadia could develop into a disaster and added that it was estimated that the final damage in a perimeter of 44,000 hectares was 22,000 burned hectares. On the other hand, as he pointed out, “the very difficult fire of Penteli was a typical example of coordination, an example of effectively dealing with an extremely difficult project”.

This year, as the minister pointed out, a new doctrine was implemented, the key word in which was coordination. “The main goal was to prevent small fires from developing into medium or large ones,” he noted.

The new dogma, prevention, preparation/readiness, immediate intervention, as the minister mentioned, was based on coordination. Specifically, Mr. Stylianidis presented actions of the ministry that took place this year due to the fire season, such as the cooperation of the Fire Brigade with the forestry services after 24 years, the large program of clearing forests and creating fire zones, Antinero, which was prepared in collaboration with the Minister of State and Mr. Amyras, the corps of forest commanders (EMODE) following the announcement of the Prime Minister, the increase in patrols with the participation of the Armed Forces and aerial surveillance, as well as the increase in Civil Protection volunteers.

“We have managed to emerge as the hub of the European Civil Protection Mechanism and rescEU”, he noted and added that next summer not only will the heavy-duty helicopter that was installed this year be given 100% European funding, but other funding for planes will be given as well.
“Greece is being rewarded for its good performance, because alongside our efforts to deal with our own fires we also sent a resounding message of European solidarity,” he said.

Regarding the next day, the minister emphasized that the goal is to speed up the procedures in order to set up a system with structures that will serve the excellent human resources of the PS with the arm of the updated AEGIS program that will be based on European funding. “The central axis of the system is the new coordinating center, which will be based on a new national database platform and will be the vehicle for scientific support and documentation for operational decisions. The ultimate goal is for operational decisions to be based on scientific analysis and documentation,” he underlined.

“Greece emerged as a key pillar of European solidarity became the hub of the European mechanism and we are now given the opportunity to attempt a big leap to become the main pillar of regional cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean under the umbrella of rescEU, something that also has geopolitical dimensions”, he pointed out.

“The management of natural disasters, the effects of the climate crisis do not have an ideological color and do not lend themselves to political confrontation. It is the definition is the field of national consensus. We will continue and insist on the collective action, to recognize the work of the firefighter and the firefighter, the main pillar of all this action”, emphasized Mr. Stylianidis, expressing thanks to Ms. Mendonis and Mr. Tourna, Papageorgiou, Schertso, Theodorikako, Petsa, Amyra, Oikonomou and Plakiotaki, for their contribution and cooperation during this year’s fire season.

RES-EMP

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