Facing the beast
It was a dilemma that some might have faced amid this week’s wildfires in Kouvaras, Dervenochoria, or Megara after receiving the text message from the emergency number 112, urging them to evacuate. Should they stay or should they go?
Take Markos, who stood hesitantly at the door of his house on the outskirts of Mandra, grappling with the same uncertainty. Observing the well-maintained space around the houses in his neighborhood, he pondered that they could be saved if the owners remained to extinguish the small fires caused by flying embers. He had already cleared his own property and the neighboring grove – a melancholic thought crossed his mind, “People who love trees must now keep them at a distance.” “I will stay to fight and leave if things worsen,” he concluded.
And he made the most risky decision, though fortunately short-lived. Fire is a fearsome beast, fueled by numerous factors: the deterioration of the climate, hot and dry conditions, the pressure for more construction and unchecked land use, oversights and omissions in fire prevention, human negligence, and indifference. In other words, all the consequences of the disconnect between the forest and those who govern and who are governed.
Observing the well-maintained space around the houses in his neighborhood, he pondered that they could be saved if the owners remained to extinguish the small fires caused by flying embers
The difficulty of leaving behind one’s lifelong property, known in Greek as “to vios,” could lead to one of many fatal outcomes: firefighting starting with critical delays, the beast behaving unpredictably, rapidly changing direction, and instantly engulfing vast areas with abundant dry fuel, cutting off escape routes.
“It’s hard to fight the fire if you’re consumed by the fear of it,” Petros thought, but he acted differently. After evacuating his family to safety, he returned with fellow farmers, firefighters and water carriers, ready to confront the blaze using chainsaws, tractors, excavators and water tanks.
The decision to evacuate is by no means an easy one. It delicately balances on the edge of time – neither too early nor too late – the unhindered escape, and the emotions of the people. If we compiled snapshots from the burning regions of the world, as a Californian official recently mentioned, we would witness convoys of cars fleeing from blazing forests in California, Oregon, Canada, Spain, Portugal, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Siberia.
Evacuation saves lives. However, it also starkly illustrates the vulnerability of human populations to the consequences of nature’s outbursts – hurricanes, floods, wildfires. The unfortunate circumstances we have contributed to ourselves.
