“The conditions we face are insurmountable. We are heading for a very difficult fire seasonhe emphasized the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias in an interview he gave to the newspaper “Kathimerini tis Kyriakis” and to the journalist Yiannis Souliotis.

As he pointed out, an exact prediction of weather phenomena cannot be made as meteorological forecasts are made only a week in advance, nevertheless it is a fact that this winter has been dry: Last autumn lasted until December and was followed by only a short period with a fall of temperature and some snowfall. “Our scientists do not see anywhere in the great mountain masses of Greece, snow, ice that has remained, in order to melt in the summerhe characteristically said.

To a question about the readiness of the state apparatus for the upcoming fire fighting season, the Minister replied that important modernization and organization steps have been taken. At the level of prevention, he mentioned that for the first time in history, DEDDIE and ADMIE are entering the forests to create fire zones, while zones will also be created around the perimeter of the camps within a radius of 100 meters.

In addition, the Ministry of the Interior and the Forestry Offices are opening fire protection zones of many kilometers in the forests and now there is an obligation for all citizens to clear their plots in peri-urban, forested areas, otherwise they will be fined by the municipalities.

Mr. Kikilias also spoke about the new doctrine of the Fire Brigade in dealing with forest fires, which includes, among other things, a greater and more timely mobilization of the forces at the start of the fire with aerial vehicles taking off in the first 20 minutes, immediate participation of volunteers in the field and .a.

As he said, the air fleet will be the same as last year, i.e. 88 aerial vehicles, while the ground forces will be the largest we have ever had with 15,000 permanent firefighters and 2,500 seasonal.

“A very important strategic move is that while we had six forester units, this year we have 16, we hired another 700 forester. Being able to take some firefighters and helicopter them quickly to an elevation where we have a fire start gives us a strategic advantagesaid Mr. Kikilias.

To a question about the Fire Brigade, which is considered one of the oldest in Europe, he answered: “The one I received at the Fire Department could use a lot of improvements. We have had a large number of new firefighters in concessionaires or airports or non-first responder services. The first obligation, responsibility and condition is for the firefighters to set their boots on the forests and put out the forest fires. So if you ask me, has there been a restructuring of the entire Fire Department? Of course. A fire guard at a fire station can be 60 years old and 65 years old and 57 years old. Mind you, the average age of the Fire Department is 49 years. I want this to be heard and known throughout the world».

The Minister also referred to the AEGIS program: “I’m very proud of that. It is a Civil Protection program which was inspired and approved by the Prime Minister and which was not progressing at the pace it could. The Prime Minister asked me to proceed quickly and I implemented that. We are currently talking about well over a billion euros in tenders over the last six months. They concern the purchase of new canards, ten medium-type helicopters, 25 plus 8 amphibious aircraft, tractors that take water from the sea, or the lake and attack directly and quickly in the field, while they can also take retardant liquid, three detection and surveillance aircraft, over 100 drones, 1100 fire engines, sensors, cameras, in the forests and more… It is a very big gift for the Greek society» he said characteristically.