Large Wildfires Arriving Sooner Than Expected in Greece

Large wildfires are already breaking out in Greece amid temperatures that reached 30 degrees Celsius in late March despite the fire season not being expected for another few weeks at least.

A 12th-century monastery near Athens played host to a firefighting drill today, Thursday, April 4th, wherein a wildfire simulation was created that trapped clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.

Volunteers and firefighters rapidly pulled the “victims” to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone whirring above sent live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.

Individuals at the baptism were played by actors hired for the day by the Fire Service and the regional authority, and smoke flares were employed to create fire-like conditions. The exercise, along with several drills set to take place this month, has been infused with extra urgency ahead of fire season, which officially starts on May 1st.

Temperatures hit 30 degrees Celsius towards the end of March, and huge wildfires already broke out weeks before expected.

“Due to climate, conditions have changed. Everything in nature is dry now and it’s very easy to catch fire. So we have to be ready to deal with it,” said Loukia Kefalogianni, the deputy regional government of the capital’s North Attica region.

How Greece plans to manage wildfires

To better deal with the heightened risk of wildfires, Greece is fast-tracking a 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) scheme to upgrade its fleet of water tankers and produce an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect smoke in the early stages of a fire.

However, delivery of the new equipment won’t begin until next year, which leaves planners in a position of having to find alternatives to drive down response times.

Meanwhile, authorities are putting their faith in a range of preventative measures. These include a more flexible administration and better inter-agency cooperation. These means there shall be better communication between local governments and the military. Increased drills before the blazing summer months begin are also expected.

“Εxercises like this one today are very, very helpful because all the agencies communicate with each other and work together to get better results on a larger scale,” Christos Symiakakis, a deputy fire chief for the region told The Independent.

Greece was once again at the center of Europe’s fire season during the summer last year. The nation experienced the most devastating wildfire in European Union records. Fires destroyed an estimated 1,750 square kilometers (675 square miles) last year. Deliveries to the country of seven new Canadian-made DHC-515 firefighting aircraft, part of a wider European Union order by six member states, are set to begin in 2027.