Sikorsky Aircranes scoop water out of the sea on August 24 to help suppress a fire burning near Athens, Greece. Photo: Valerie Gache
The fires that have burned into the suburbs of Athens are contained, according to the Environment News Service. Pushed by very strong winds, the fires burned thousands of hectares and destroyed about 150 homes. No deaths have been reported.
Some of the citizens have criticized the government for a slow response to the fires. A few photos and videos show residents fighting fire in their neighborhoods with buckets of water and tree branches, saying they had not seen a fire truck and they were on their own. Newspaper editorials and mayors of villages have complained about the way the fires were fought.
These were the worst fires since 2007 when 76 people were killed by fires in Greece, many of which were set by arsonists.
A fire burns near Nea Makri village north of Athens on Monday. Photo: Yiorgos Karahalis
A decrease in the wind speeds has given firefighters in Greece a chance to gain more containment over some of the fires that have burned into the northern edges of Athens, the nation’s capital. But thousands of residents in the suburbs had to evacuate as dozens of houses were burnt.
Air tankers from several countries are helping to fight the fires. A state of emergency was declared in eastern Attica over the weekend, where fires have burned numerous homes and blackened 30,000 acres.
According to DW-World.de:
In addition, the European Union mobilized two further planes from its European tactical reserve of fire-fighting aircraft (EUFFTR), said Mann. Established to assist EU member states that face major fires, the EUFFTR makes planes available during the summer in a project costing 3.5 million euros ($5 million).
The EU and EU countries have sent in planes to help put out the flames
“They are being financed by the EU and have been leased from July 1 to September 30,” Mann said. “The idea is to help member states with their own efforts.”
The two EU fire fighting planes are stationed on Corsica, putting them close to both France and Italy and almost exactly halfway between Lisbon and Athens, according to the European Commission.
The planes have already been dispatched five times this summer; most recently to battle the fires in Portugal a few weeks ago.
This video has some good fire footage, including an aerial firefighting tactic not seen in the United States, that of two air tankers making drops in tandem, one right after the other.
One of the nightmares of wildland firefighters is being sued or charged with a crime when things go badly on a wildfire or prescribed fire. Some of the federal land management agencies have aggressively sought to find a law that was broken when there was a serious accident on a fire. That is why we recommend professional liability insurance for wildland firefighters who are in supervisory positions.
The state of Pennsylvania has taken a step in the right direction by passing a law that will help to protect firefighters involved in prescribed fire.
An excerpt from an article at TribLIVE:
In July, Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law House Bill 262. Sponsored by Cambria County Democratic Rep. Gary Haluska, the bill created the “prescribed fire burning act.” It “encourages the continued use of prescribed burning for fuel reduction, ecological, forest, wildlife and grassland management purposes.”
Most importantly, it provides a definition for a “prescribed burn worker” and removes individual liability from fire bosses who have received proper training and burn according to guidelines that are right now being established.
That liability issue kept agencies from doing much burning in the past because the man who struck the first match — even at the instruction of the agency — was individually as liable for any damages that occurred as was the organization itself.
Now that it’s been resolved, wildlife and habitat should benefit.
“This law will provide guidance and legal protection to land managers who understand the ecology of fire and want to embrace the best practices for managing public and private landscapes,” said Nels Johnson, the Pennsylvania director of conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy.
The Missoulian has an excellent article about a program at the Missoula smokejumper base which introduces kids to the concept of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes into forest fires. (Is this child abuse?)
Here is an excerpt:
Fourteen-year-old Gunnar Nabozney took a Junior Smokejumper class a few days ago.
Eight-year-old Molly White smiles behind the mask of a jump helmet at the end of her Junior Smokejumper camp last week. Photo by KURT WILSON/Missoulian
It’s not entirely clear he needed it, as he seemed to already know plenty about fires, airplanes and parachutes.
“Isn’t this the same system that paratroopers used in World War II?” Nabozney asked smokejumper Travis Parker as the class looked about a DC-3 jump plane.
“Pretty much, although we do things a little differently than they did,” a surprised Parker said to Nabozney, one of five kids taking part in the class sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service Smokejumper Center. “In fact, they learned how to do this by watching how we did it way back then.”
Despite his wealth of knowledge, Gunnar, his brother Joren and three other youngsters learned a lot during the one-day smokejumper program.
“We’ve had about 100 kids go through this this summer, and they really seem to enjoy it,” said Molly Cottrell, who taught the class with an assist from Parker and folks at the National Weather Service.
The kids come away with a heightened sense of what it means to be a smokejumper. But they also learned about fire, its behavior and how that behavior is influenced by weather.
“It’s pretty neat stuff,” 10-year-old Joren Nabozney said.
Over 10,000 people have evacuated from Agios Stefanos, a suburb of Athens, Greece as a large wildfire approaches the outskirts of the city. Officials declared a state of emergency as fires pushed by strong winds burned for the third day.
Locals run to escape a fire at Grammatiko village. Photo: Yiorgos Karahalis
Earlier two large children’s hospitals were forced to evacuate along with other outlying suburban areas.
From Sky News:
Alexios, a resident of the threatened Athens suburb of Dionysos, told of his scramble to leave his home on web messaging site Twitter.
“Signing off, the power’s out. Fires near Rodopoli (West of Dionysos) and approaching Rapendoza (just East of Dionysos),” he wrote on Saturday evening.
An hour later, he gave the update: “Evacuating Dionysos. Stuck in traffic with two terrrified dogs and hundreds of panicky drivers. Wish me luck.”
Fortunately Alexios was able to reach the city centre. He wrote an hour afterwards: “Escaped the evacuee convoy early, safely in Athens proper (dogs safe too).”
Those who have left their homes now face an anxious wait to see if the flames will engulf their homes.
Here is a video that shows some of the action. It is narrated in a British accent which adds to the drama.
(THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
A firefighter works near Agios Stephanos. Photo: Nikolas Giakoumidis
Here is another video. A portion of it is still photos without narration.
(THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
European Union activates civil protection mechanism for Greece’s wildfires.
From China View:
BRUSSELS, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) — The European Commission said here Sunday that it has activated the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection following a spreading wildfires in Greece.
The decision was made by the request of Greece after extreme weather conditions fueled the spreading of the fires in the country, the commission said in a statement.
The wildfires continues to spread on Sunday in areas near Athens, forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.
Italy immediately sent two Canadair CL-415 amphibian water-bombing aircrafts to assist in putting out the fires, the statement said.
In addition, upon a request by the Monitoring and Information Center (MIC), France is ready to mobilize two Canadair CL-215 airplanes of the European tactical reserve of fire fighting aircraft (EUFFTR), which was established this summer to assist member states facing major fires.
Cyprus offered to send a fire fighting helicopter, according to the commission.
Some amazing photos are coming out of the fire situation in Greece.
A Bombardier 415 air tanker makes a drop in Varnava village, northeast of Athens on Saturday. Photo: Yiorgos KarahalisSmoke is seen behind the Acropolis in Athens on Saturday. Photo: Louisa GouliamakiA Sikorsky Aircrane makes a drop on a fire near Marathon in Greece. Photo: Dimitri Messinis
