Fires: Greece can breathe, while remaining on its guard
Audio 01:15
A helicopter pours water not far from the village of Galatsonas, in the north of the island of Evia, on August 11.
© AP - Lefteris Pitarakis
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
After a series of violent fires that struck Greece for nearly two weeks, burned more than 100,000 hectares of land and led to the aid of hundreds of foreign firefighters, the situation seems to be under control again.
Despite everything, the authorities remain attentive to the risk of a resumption of fires, in a context of still high temperatures and winds which should intensify over the weekend.
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With our special correspondent in Lagadia in the Peloponnese,
Joël Bronner
A sign that things are going much better on the
fire front
across Greece in general, the flames have left the front page of the national press, a place they had occupied since the end of July, and which is now again held by news about Covid-19 and the evolution of the health crisis.
In the Peloponnese, a representative of the French firefighters who came to lend a hand in the region of Arcadia - there are 140 at present, supported by 100 soldiers - indicates for his part that the situation has improved markedly over the years. last three days.
An improvement facilitated in part by more favorable weather.
Now, the work of these firefighters is mainly to protect the areas closest to the villages, avoiding the risk of re-flames from the still glowing embers.
It is also time for the ecological and economic results of these fires, which ravaged the Greek regions for ten days.
Almost 100,000 hectares of forests have burned down across the country.
North of Athens, the Parnes mountain range and several surrounding villages were thus engulfed in flames.
Faced with overwhelmed aid, some residents did what they could to help the firefighters and fight, too, against the flames.
The fire in northern Athens was finally extinguished, but
part of the local population now
resents
the management of the various fires.
“
We had absolutely no water, just a few branches in our hands to try to stop the fire, that's all,
” says Georgios, a resident of the disaster area.
If he is aware that the number of fires has complicated the task of the emergency services, he has a lot on his heart and can not help blaming the management of the authorities: "
I had to give up my job, my professional vehicle was damaged. suffered damage on that occasion, and all because the state was not present.
The state has malfunctioned.
"
On the island of Euboea
, some 50,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land have gone up in smoke over the past ten days, which corresponds to about half of the charred areas of the country.
This disaster, the large island located northeast of the capital, Athens, will likely take many years to recover.
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