LAVRION, Greece– Greece is releasing a document variety of firemans and almost increasing its drone fleet this summer season to deal with expanding wildfire dangers driven by climate change, authorities claimed Thursday.
Civil Security Preacher Ioannis Kefalogiannis claimed 18,000 long-term and seasonal employees, sustained by hundreds of volunteers, would certainly be set in motion as wildfire damages has actually boosted progressively over the previous twenty years.
” It is clear that the problems this year will certainly be especially hard,” Kefalogiannis informed press reporters after participating in a firefighting workout south of Athens.
Rising typical temperature levels and reduced rains have actually substantially gotten worse problems in recent times.
Greek Fire Principal Lt. Gen. Theodoros Vagias informed The Associated Press that added elite firefighting systems would certainly be released to risky locations throughout the Might 1– Oct. 31 fire period.
” The environment dilemma is below to remain, and we need to be much more efficient in security, readiness, and exactly how we activate our sources,” Vagias claimed.
Wildfire damage rose to greater than 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) in 2021 and 1,745 square kilometers (675 square miles) in 2023– about 3 times the 2011– 2020 standard– according to information from the European Union’s Woodland Fire Details System.
Firemens held a workout Thursday to check Greece’s evolving wildfire response, which progressively counts on sophisticated modern technologies such as drone security and mobile command facilities.
Fire aircrafts skimmed treetops, launching plumes of water in worked with low-altitude decreases, as leaders on the ground gathered over tablet computers streaming real-time drone video. The coastline guard and militaries participated in a drill mimicing the emptying of a kids’s summer season camp endangered by fires on numerous fronts.
Authorities claimed the variety of firefighting employees has actually boosted by about 20% over the previous 2 years, while the fleet of fire-surveillance drones has actually expanded to 82, up from 45.
Around 300 firemans from the Czech Republic, France, Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria are being sent out to Greece under a European Union prepositioning program, authorities claimed.
__ Lefteris Pitarakis in Lavrion, Greece added to this record
