Drought sees fires beginning as early as March

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. 'We have had a winter with high temperatures and drought, resulting in a high availability of dead forest matter, which acts as fuel and tinder. If there is a spark, a fire can break out,' pyro-meteorologists who also analyzed the scenarios for the coming years based on the study of climate change models said in comments to Kathimerini. [Alexandros Avramidis]