In a helicopter heading over miles of hills blackened by wildfires west of Athens, fire lieutenant Ioannis Kolovos prepares his elite fire crew for action.
The group of ten firefighters, specialized in wildfires, have the tools needed to fight the fires: chainsaws, rakes, weather gauges, tablets and torches to burn wildfire barriers into the hillside.
Today’s call-out is just an exercise to prepare them for a busy summer.
Doubles the number
The fire season in the country officially started on May 1, but dozens of fires have already been extinguished in the last month after the temperature crept up to 30 degrees at the end of March.
– It’s actually already summer for us, says Kolovos during a training exercise.
– The fire season started too early and has been extended over the past five years.
This year, the number of specialist firefighters in Greece has doubled to around 1,300, and they are adopting new tactics to try to prevent this year’s fire season from being as bad as last year’s.
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Building breach
Among the specialists is an airborne group consisting of forestry experts and firefighters with various skills, many developed during training with colleagues in France, Spain and the USA.
They are working to build breaks in the expected course of the fire, so that the fires will not spread over larger areas.
– We can position ourselves in optimal places that can be difficult to reach on foot and carry out firefighting using various specialized methods, says fire constable Dimitris “Jim” Priftis. He helps with the training in a region near Athens, where several fires ravaged last year.
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– Using water is no longer the main weapon against the fires; those are our tools. We have a more scientific approach to the fires and measure the humidity and wind – it’s a more planned method, he continues.
Training
With financial help from the EU, Greece has implemented measures worth 2.1 billion euros – the equivalent of 24.9 billion Norwegian kroner – to strengthen disaster preparedness.
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Among other things, the authorities have ordered new planes, drones, fire trucks, training facilities and an AI-powered sensor network that can detect early signs of smoke and flooding.
But the new equipment will not arrive until 2025 at the earliest. That is why we are now working hard on training and new firefighting methods, as this year’s forest fire season is expected to be tough.
Last year, forest fires ravaged an area of approximately 1,750 square kilometers, including a fire in northern Greece that was the worst ever recorded in the EU.
Challenge
With a lot of wind, mountains and islands, Greece annually faces the daunting challenge of defending towns and villages that overlap with forested areas prone to forest fires.
It’s also getting warmer. Last winter was the warmest since records began in 1960, according to satellite data analyzed by Greek authorities. The six warmest recorded winters in Greece have occurred in the last ten years.
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New research also shows that Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and that temperatures here are rising about twice as fast as the global average.
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– Difficult summer
Greece’s Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Preparedness, Vassilis Kikilias, says that the authorities expect the annual forest fires to get worse in the future.
– It will be a very difficult fire season – and a very difficult summer. It was a dry winter, and autumn temperatures lasted until December. So we face the climate crisis head on.
Throughout the month of April, the number of exercises for the firefighters was stepped up, including using a new training facility worth 1.2 million euros. Here, the inside of a burning building is simulated, and the firefighters are sent in with heavy protective equipment and oxygen tanks to practice techniques and rescues.
Nearby, other firefighters crawl through a maze in the dark to practice working in tight spaces. Strobe lights, smoke and loud noises are added to disorient them.
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– The firefighting maze helps the firefighters in the dark, in unfamiliar surroundings, to enter the area, investigate, possibly carry out a rescue and find a way out, says Vrasidas Grafakos, head of the training facility.
– Hope
Pensioner Krysoula Renieri was among those who lost their home in last year’s forest fires. They particularly ravaged the holiday island of Rhodes, in north-east Greece, and areas west of Athens.
Almost a year later, she is back in her house in Loutraki, about 82 kilometers west of the capital. As she walks through the darkened rooms, she describes how her family felt helpless as the fire approached. First, the electricity and water supply were cut as the fire approached, before the flames took hold of the house itself.
– No one helped us, and everything burned. Everything is gone, she says.
Renieri says she hopes that the new methods and equipment for the fire crews will be able to make a difference to others.
– I really hope it does. So many homes will be able to be saved. We must hope, because summer is coming, and the sufferings will follow.
