Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias on Tuesday highlighted the superhuman efforts made by those battling the wildfires that have raged in Attica since Sunday afternoon, while he also spoke about the swift first response of emergency services when the fire broke out in Varnavas. He reported that the fire no longer had an active front but was broken up into isolated pockets of flames.
"Forty hours from the moment when the extremely dangerous fire in Varnavas erupted, we can say that there is no active front but scattered pockets. In these 40 hours in northeast Attica, there were superhuman efforts to battle the flames by 702 firefighters and 27 teams of forest commandos, 199 vehicles, 35 aircraft -specifically 17 airplanes and 18 helicopters, of which three were for coordination. Volunteers, police, the army, forest rangers and forestry workers, the Attica Region and municipalities, with the help of [the emergency number] 112, evacuated and saved 45 areas," Kikilias said.
"I will say again, one more time, that the response time to the first source of flame on Sunday afternoon was five minutes from the air and seven minutes by a fire department vehicle. This is the reality. That in spite of the very swift operational response - the new dogma that in combination with the technological support of drones has been implemented all summer for hundreds of fires that have been faced - when extreme conditions prevail, the problem becomes insurmountable. We had a class 5 danger with winds of 7-8 Beaufort, extended drought and an inaccessible location with these characteristics, mountain, forest but also settlements, scattered houses. In other words, we are not talking about a simple fire that unfortunately slipped out of control...we are talking about the most difficult and dangerous scenario for everyone, firefighters, operatives and residents. This is the reality and we faced it," the minister added.
"The people that all these hours experienced the true conditions under which we operated in northeast Attica are aware of it. Through the ordeal they suffered, the fear, the anger and the deep sorrow, as a worker was unfortunately lost, they know that the firefighters, the police, local government, volunteers, the army were there and made a superhuman struggle to prevent the worst. The same firefighters that operate throughout the summer and put out one fire after another," he concluded.
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