“It is an emergency situation, not only in Greece but for all countries in the Mediterranean, especially in the South, where many fires have broken out, often more than 60 a day,” government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said in an interview with Mega TV on Friday.
Marinakis added that there were more than 80 active fronts virtually every day and sometimes even 90, while both aerial and ground firefighting forces must provide assistance in all of them. The primary goal was the protection of human life, prompt evacuations, the protection of citizens’ property and, of course, protecting infrastructure, he stressed.
Regarding the spread of the fires, he explained: “In an unprecedented situation of successive blazes that have been classed as mega fires – i.e. fires that are much more intense and much more difficult to put out in the first few hours, so there is a risk they will spread – there are many causes…. Certainly, one is the climate crisis and the difference in temperatures, the prolonged heatwaves and the fact that all this creates an arid environment, which makes it difficult to contain fires. There are winds, there is the human factor, which is being investigated by the competent authorities, without us having to replace their role. What we could have done was to better equip the country.”
“We must make the best use of the mechanisms that exist and become better every year,” he underlined.
“We are currently in combat mode. We are facing fires in Greece, in Spain, in Italy, in Croatia and in France. Especially in the South, but also in countries on the other side of the Atlantic,” Marinakis said.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
