By Gifts Antoniou

One week before the official launch of this year’s fire season, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will visit at 10am. Today the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection. There will be a complete review of the government’s planning to tackle fires, under the new data shaped by the changing climatic conditions and the climate crisis.

The basic philosophy of the measures taken is primarily to enhance prevention. Thus, since the beginning of the month the Plot Cleaning Procedurewith the deadline given to exhale at the end of April. According to data from the competent services, last year, the first year of implementation of this prevention measure, 830,000 plots had been cleared and this year the goal is to significantly increase this number. At the same time, the relevant funding to municipalities has increased in order to participate in the cleaning program. Of the 334 local local authorities, less than 200 had joined the program last year.

What is sought with land cleaning is to reduce the potential outbreaks of fires and rapid spread. The decrease in fires are a key parameter of fireplace design and one of its three pillars. The other two relate to the rapid delineation of fires and the reduction of extensive disasters.

In the information that will be made today at the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection will analyze the structure of the forces. prevention and firefighteras an attempt has been made to strengthen the means and the human resources.

In particular:

– As far as the Forestry Fire Fireworks is concerned, it is expected that 49 rented airlines are expected to be added to the 30 – 35 aircraft in our country. In addition, this year there will be 80 drones available, equipped with thermal cameras, operating on a 24 -hour basis aimed at quickly detecting fires and at the next stage the best guidance of ground forces in firefighting operations.

– The Fire Department, compared to 2023, will have 20% more staff this year, a total of 18,000 executives. 2,500 seasonal firefighters are added to these forces and 4,500 volunteers of the Fire Brigade will participate in the firefighting season and an additional 5,500 volunteers from other voluntary organizations.

– For the fourth year, the Antinero program is implemented, which concerns the cleaning of forest land and the opening of firefighting zones.

– Civil Protection has been significantly enhanced through the Aegean program with media such as meteorological stations and radars that provide real -time information to follow ongoing phenomena, while at the same time contributing decisively to prognosis and preparation when difficult weather and extinguishing and extinguishing fires. As part of the Aegean program, it is crucial to cooperate with the Armed Forces, which also help to deal with natural disasters and the development of actions for the firefighting period.

As the competent government sources point out, it is one of the critical bets of the government or as much as possible Better Organization of the Fire Prevention and Extinguishing Mechanism. This is expected to be pointed out today by Mr. Mitsotakis. Evidence shows that the risk of fires is constantly increasing, so the prevention bet is very important. Indicatively, in 2024 the farm fires arrived in total 9.777increased by 1,520 compared to 2023.