THE Vassilis Kikilias gave an interview to Daily to reassure him about the coming summer and the fire season and all he managed to do was shock with what he confessed.
Because everyone knows that when the responsible minister admits, even in a friendly way, that things are extremely difficult in dealing with fires, the reality is even more nightmarish.
“The conditions we face are insurmountable. We’re going for a very difficult firefighting season,” stated the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias in an interview he gave to the newspaper “Kathimerini tis Kyriakis”.
As he pointed out, an exact forecast for 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 of drop in temperature and some snowfall.
“Our scientists do not see anywhere in the large mountain masses of Greece, snow, ice that has remained, in order to melt in the summer,” he said characteristically.
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 ones.
In question about the Fire Department that is considered of the oldest in Europe, he replied: “What I received in the Fire Department could do with a lot of improvement. 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 put their boots on the forests and put out the forest fires. So, if you ask me, was there 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 firefighter age is 49 years. I want this to be heard and known throughout the world.”
