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Greece increases capacities to fight massive fires

2024-05-01 11:22:18, Kosova & Bota CNA

Greece increases capacities to fight massive fires

This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to 1,300, as well as adopting US tactics in fighting mass fires.

Members of the new specialized units in Greece include forestry experts and firefighters of various skills who are training with their counterparts in France, Spain and the US.

Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1, but dozens of fires have already been extinguished in recent months as temperatures began to reach 30 degrees Celsius in late March - significantly higher than the same period in previous years.

Funded largely by the European Union, Greece has launched a €2.1 billion program to improve its disaster response capacity, ordering new water-dropping planes, drones, trucks, training facilities and an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network that detect early signs of smoke and flooding.

But the new devices won't start arriving until 2025.

Meanwhile, Greek authorities are doubling the number of training sessions on new firefighting methods ahead of what is expected to be another tough season this year.

Fires burned about 1,750 square kilometers last year, including a massive blaze in northern Greece that was the worst ever recorded in the European Union.

Due to the geographical terrain, Greece faces year after year problems in protecting numerous urban settlements in forested areas at risk of fire.

And, over the years, the temperatures have also increased. Last winter was the warmest since modern records began in 1960, according to the National Observatory of Athens, which analyzed satellite data from the European Union. The six warmest winters on record in Greece have occurred in the last decade.

New data reveals that Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, as its temperatures rise by roughly twice the global average./ REL





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