“This year we had probably the most difficult summer of twenty years”among other things, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, among others, Giannis Kefalogiannisspeaking this morning, at SKAI.

As he explained, the firefighting season “goes by the end of October” and the overall report “will take place at the end of October”, as September and October historically give difficult fires. In the same context, he addressed “a public appeal to be very careful in the coming days”, recalling that the last two days were “due to lightning activity” in Western Macedonia.

Referring to the intensity of this summer, he pointed out that from “the beginning of the year we have over 6,000 fires”, a level corresponding, as he said, in recent years, while the pyroteo -state parameters exacerbate the behavior of the fire. For burnt areas so far, he said that “we are about 450,000 acres”, making it clear that the final report is important “to see which areas are forests, which forests, which grassy, ​​which rock”.

In the question of the causes, the minister reiterated that “70% to 75% was due to anthropogenic factor, either negligent or deceitful -mainly by negligence”, citing “illegal bees” who triggered a dangerous fire in Ymittos, which was “about 30 minutes”.

On the part of the arson, he underlined the “excellent work” of the DEEE with “too many arrests for arsonists either by fraud or by negligence”, noting that “the framework has been tightened in the Criminal Code” and now the perpetrator is facing “a penalty of imprisonment, as well as a penalty”.

Called to respond to the management of air means and any political interventions, Mr. Kefalogiannis was categorical: “Management is only exclusively from the Fire Brigade based on business needs”. He explained that in days with multiple traits – “On August 12th we had about 82 embarrassment at the same time” – the forces are distributed accordingly. At the same time he denied the claim that only “6,000 of the 18,000” are really combat: “No. This is not the case, and even seasonal are people who are combat, especially in the difficult period, mainly July and August, who are statistically most incidents, unfortunately there is no eight -hour. “

On the issue of HEDNO, the minister acknowledged that, in addition to accidental events such as lightning, there are also incidents related to the network, but stressing the cooperation and the need to accelerate critical interventions: “DEDDIE does cleaning and doing some underground, I think that in some places it can accelerate the procedures so that either more extensive cleaning or even more undergrounds are made, especially at critical points.” noted, among other things.

He made a special reference to technology as a tool for prevention and rapid response: “We have twice as much drones compared to last year, it is 82 this year compared to the 45 that operated last year. It is also a measure of deterrence and most importantly it is that it quickly detects the smoke before it fires in a fire. ” He recalled that “this year’s drones were a sponsorship from HEDNO” and that the program is planned to extend “to more parts of the country”.

In closing, Mr Kefalogiannis reiterated the central strategic orientation: prevention, strict adherence to the law and operational discipline. “The final report at the end of October will incorporate all the data on land and causes, with the commitment that civil protection will continue to be reinforced into personnel, means and technology to protect human lives, property and the natural environment.”he ended up.