Cutbacks on fireproofing measures
Fire prevention measures imposed on homeowners with properties inside or near forests will be scaled back on the first summer of their implementation.
Formally requiring homeowners to remove all materials that could potentially facilitate the spread of wildfires as part of new firefighting and fireproofing standards had been announced with great fanfare. But, faced with actually having to bring the ambitious regulations into force, authorities have taken a step back.
Based on a ministerial decision published Monday, homeowners are essentially obliged to prune trees close to their homes and leave no firewood in open spaces, but little besides that.
“We wanted to arrive at a compromise that will limit the chances of a home burning to the ground without [measures] placing too great a burden on households,” said Environment and Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis.
In fact, some of the actions demanded of citizens – for example, paying an engineer to write a report on measures taken if their house was within 300 meters of parks or groves, or submitting a report for every tree that they would have to chop down – were so detailed and the demands so uniform, without accounting individual circumstances, that the Office of the Ombudsman had warned that they could be legally challenged as impinging on individuals’ property rights.
Thus, the ministerial decision published Monday says that the provisions of the new fire protection regulations are “indicative” and that “divergences are possible after case-by-case documentation.”
“We are asking for the obvious. Don’t allow branches to reach windows, tree trunks to lean on roofs or firewood to lie next to gas tanks,” Skylakakis said.
