Weather lore

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.

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.

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.

Thousands of homeowners with properties near or inside forested/protected areas face hefty fines as of Monday if they have not complied with new fire protection measures.

Escapist tendencies are perfectly understandable in anyone who is involved in public life in Greece, and especially if they are in a post that entails serious responsibilities. To put it bluntly, this is not an easy country. The state is riddled with people like the stationmaster in Larissa involved in the Tempe crash and the Fire Service officials on duty during the deadly Mati wildfire.

It would be highly beneficial to have information about the financial stability of municipalities, the fiscal prudence of mayors, and their contributions to civil protection, environmental initiatives, and enhancing citizens' daily lives before each local election.

A massive wildfire that decimated vast tracts of forest in northeastern Greece over 17 days was gradually abating on Monday, although hundreds of firefighters were still tackling pockets that continued to burn, the fire department said.