Every year the problem of fires returns. It is very media-savvy, with dramatic photos circulating the Internet every year. In the recent Attica fire, 100,000 hectares of forest burned, which is as much as 2.5% of the region’s area.
Last year, a fire in the north of Corfu was extinguished for nearly two weeks.
Certainly rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought have much to answer for, but what is most striking is the inadequate preparation of Greeks for firefighting operations. Monitoring is done by NGOs, there is a shortage of helicopters and, in the event of action, reinforcements arrive faster from Albania, Bulgaria or Turkey than from other Greek areas.
The cause of the fires, however, is almost exclusively human.