Firefighting is not policing, experts warn
The fire burning on the island of Rhodes for a seventh day highlights the weaknesses of Greece’s firefighting and forest management.
There have been positive steps, such as transferring the forest management agencies from the Agriculture to the Environment Ministry, but even that process is slow-moving, experts say.
“Greece has the world’s largest firefighting fleet, relative to its size and population,” says Ioannis Mitsopoulos, assistant professor of forestry at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University and director general of the National Environment and Climate Change Agency. “We are not lacking in firefighters. What is ailing is planning and organization,” he adds.
Mitsopoulos was a member of the Goldammer Commission, named after Johann Goldammer, director of the Germany-based Global Fire Monitoring Center, which submitted a comprehensive report on forest and wildfire management in Greece following the deadly wildfire that killed 104 people in the seaside resort of Mati, near Athens, in July 2018. The report emphasized prevention over suppression.“Wildfires must be confronted in the first half-hour [after their outbreak],” he says.
Mitsopoulos says that the Goldammer report is still relevant: “Since 1998 we have channeled resources solely to putting out [fires]. The forests were left to their fate and got denser. It’s obvious by the result that the firefighting doctrine must change… We need a single agency with a plan, not more planes.” Also, he says, “We definitely know is that the doctrine ‘people first, properties second’ is not working.”
“In light of the climate change, without focusing on forest management… and a 10-year plan, nothing will change. It’s like having a building [ready to collapse] and you start by painting it, restoring the garden and changing the sockets. A ‘policing logic’ is not effective in dealing with wildfires,” says George Eftychidis, another member of the Goldammer team.
