About this year’s fire fighting season, the hard battles the Fire Brigade fights every day to protect property, lives and forests, but also about what has changed this year in the operational doctrine of forest fire fighting, spoke about Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikiliasin an interview he gave to T/S ERT.

As he said, this is the most difficult firefighting season of the last 20 years, while he emphasized that this year’s firefighting season has no equal and every day is critical. “You see we are on the 14th consecutive day of high temperatures around 40 degrees. It is obvious that this tests our endurance. But I must say that the effort we are making is organized and structured. Our firefighters, our volunteers, forest commanders, forest chiefs with forest workers, ELAS, the Armed Forces, the first and second level Local Government with water and earthmoving machines are all together in the field, coordinated in the new doctrine of the Fire Brigade. Thank you very much to everyone”said the minister, underlining that the new doctrine with the fastest and most timely take-off of aerial vehicles and the most aggressive tactics in dealing with forest fires so far is yielding and bringing results.

“However, I will not get tired of saying until the end of the firefight that no one can underestimate the elements of nature and a small mistake or even more intentional arson is enough to bring havoc and destruction” he said characteristically.

Mr. Kikilias made special reference to the part of prevention and the decisive importance it has in dealing with this year’s fires. “We worked very hard all winter and spring on prevention. I want to thank our 834,000 fellow citizens who cleaned their plots. It’s a huge number, it’s a very, very big effort. It is one thing to have two meters of grass and the fire “runs” uncontrollably, and another to have a cleared plot of land where the fire does not “walk”. Secondly, DEDDIE and ADMIE entered the forests after 50 years and made fire zones. Do you understand how important this is? They should maintain their networks and we should be able to put our fire engines inside. Third, as I explained, now on the field they are all together and doing a sensational job this year. They work non-stop day and night. Three, four, five and six days have required firefighters to remain in the field for rekindling. At night nothing is visible, in the morning there are 1-2 smokes and at noon flames erupt again somewhere because this is the climate. We are at the heart of the climate crisis in a condition that is insurmountable. Aerials are mandatorily raised with any announcement, that is, we do not wait for the fireman to arrive to tell us that there is a fire. And in Attica and in other regions of the country at critical times of the day, depending on the decisions of the Chief of Police, the aerials fly full of water. This is a very big change and intersection. Like the fact that we now have in Attica – and it is spreading to the rest of Greece – 24 hours a day drones flying over our forest volumes and semi-urban – semi-forested areas with infrared cameras, able to detect at night. We see in the Operations Center at the ministry from the drone cameras the start of the fire and we all run faster, organized and coordinated to protect our fellow citizens. Technology is now working in our favor” said the minister.

He also thanked the Ministry of Citizen Protection for the decisive assistance of ELAS in the fight against the fires, as well as the Ministries of National Defense and Environment & Energy. As he stated “Mr. Dendias, based on what we discussed last year, organized and established a vertically integrated structure headed by Lt. General Mr. Klouvas – an excellent officer – who deals with the emergency of fires or any disasters. The Armed Forces, in addition to the patrols in the forests that are organized and structured throughout the country, also contribute with the machines they have: The pushers, the crawlers, the JCBs, which are now advanced to points such that they can reach in the field and put at the disposal of the forester who works with the fire officer and decides where to make fire zones to stop a fire. My colleague, Mr. Skylakakis, has presented a series of initiatives and bills and we have a very close collaboration, especially with the Director of Forestry Vangelis Goudoufas. It’s the 3rd year they’ve run AntiNero, the program of clearing and opening zones in the forests. Also, after 40 years, the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave 1,500 recruitments to the forest offices for foresters and forest workers. So there is now an organized system of cooperation of all these forces under Civil Protection in order to protect our fellow citizens. It is crucial and important.”

Finally, the Minister of Civil Protection appealed to all citizens to contribute to the great effort being made to deal with the forest fires, underlining that “despite the technology, drones or anything else we have in the fight against fires, if our fellow citizens see something, call the Fire Department at 199 or 112, at the Civil Protection center. A direct contact, so that we investigate even a small smoke. Even if they’re not sure, that’s okay. Have the Fire Department come and check it out. There is no room for mistakes in the heart of summer. We are now July 21. We have the remaining days of July and all of August ahead and then an autumn in which we do not know how the weather will behave. Let’s all come together to defend our country. I think it is the most patriotic and the clearest and cleanest thing we can do at this time to show that we respect our family, the island we live on, our village, our city, our fellow human beings.”