Galery

1

An outdated fleet of fire-engines, lack of human recourses, limited aircraft. The firefighting department seems unprepared to manage the fires, that are occurring in different spots in the country. The economic crisis, the delay and political disinterest have created a potentially explosive mixture, which is expected to cause a lot of problems in the extinguishing of the fires during the forthcoming difficult summer.

The new Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection, Nikos Dendias, informed Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras about this problem. A few days ago, in Parliament, he painted the sad picture of the state of the Firefighting department.

Nikos Dendias

"As far as resources are concerned, we are not in a very good state for the forthcoming summer, and this is only putting it mildly", said Nikos Dendias. "In theory, we have 21 aeroplanes, 3 of which are out of order, i.e. we have 18, but they are not always available".

Indeed, of 21 firefighting aeroplanes, type Canadair, airworthy are just 18. Luckily, there are  18 more, type "Pezetel", which are spread among Kalamata, Andravida, Lamia, Kefalonia, Agrinio, Tripoli, Corfu and Mytilini, and which often "retrieve" the situation.