Emergency management

Greek authorities have taken proactive measures as they announce the commencement of the forest fire season, as reported by the Greek publication Kathimerini. The decision comes in response to unusually high temperatures, low rainfall, and strong winds, setting the stage for potentially hazardous fire conditions.

The combination of unseasonably warm temperatures, low rainfall and strong winds has prompted authorities to declare wildfire season open as of Monday, April 15, the earliest Greece has ever started implementing fire prevention measures.

As officials brace for another wildfire station, one that started much earlier than usual due to unseasonably warm weather, a priority is to protect homes and property.

The 2023 wildfire season in Europe was among the worst this century, according to a European Commission report published on Wednesday.

Last year, more than half a million (504,002) hectares, an area twice the size of Luxembourg, was scorched by wildfires, according to a report on Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2023 by the Commission's Joint Research Centre.

The fire season may formally begin on May 1, but forest fires started at the end of March this year, causing particular concern. Indicatively, a fire broke out on Mt Taygetos, southern Greece on March 26, followed by another in the Pieria range in the north, at an altitude where they are not a common occurrence, while 250 hectares burnt in Ierapetra on Crete last weekend.

New payments for emergency assistance have been issued to the victims of the floods that occurred in various areas of Thessaly and central Greece at the beginning of September 2023.

According to an announcement from the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, 2,591,737 euros was credited to citizens' bank accounts last Thursday.

With wildfires already breaking out in Greece, Derek Gatopoulos, a correspondent for the Associated Press who has been covering news in Greece for more than 25 years, joins Thanos Davelis to look at how Greece is looking to overhaul its wildfire response in preparation for this summer's wildfire season.

Firefighters are on their way to battle a wildfire near the Central Greece village of Kamena Vourla.

Local mayor Ilias Kyrmanidis said the fire broke out in two places in farmland at an altitude of 800 meters amid moderate winds.

"The fire is dangerously close to a nearby forest; swift action is imperative," he underlined.

In a drill at a 12th century monastery near Athens, a fast-approaching wildfire threatens to trap clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.

Volunteers and firefighters race to pull them to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone buzzing overhead sends live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.

Countries thrashing out a historic agreement on tackling future pandemics must use April to bridge their differences because failure cannot be an option, the negotiations co-chair told AFP.