Filenews 18 July 2021 - by Vasos Vassiliou
The reduction of funds related to the reinforcement of the Department of Forestry to deal with fires, the closure of the Forestry College from where we found "experienced" forest firefighters, the reduction of personnel, the obstacles to the creation of fire lanes on private property, the operation of the Department of Forestry as a public service but also the non-extinguishment of fires head-on, led to the destruction of Salia, Arakapas/mountainous Larnaca and other areas.
Of course, we must also include the responsibility of the citizens, whether they are farmers who burn greens, or owners of one of the 10,000 individual houses (many of them near or within forests), the various craftsmen who carry out work in the countryside, who cause fires even if they do not want to. It should be noted, it is commonly accepted, that both the leadership of the Department of Forestry and forest rangers fight each time, regardless of deficiencies and any weaknesses recorded.
Fires have always broken out in Cyprus and it is surprising, for those who do not know, that fires were sometimes extinguished without volatile means, without fire trucks and without ... water! Exaggerations? No, answers the former director of the Department of Forests and former director general in the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Loukas Paionidis, who indicates that the first fire truck was received by the Department of Forests in 1924.
To the question of how to put out fires in earlier years, the answer is that there was a technique such as the use of 'fire', as well as the head-on response to fire, experience, forest surveillance, etc. Of course, large areas have been burned before, but as Mr Paionidis says, at the time of the Turkish invasion or even earlier in Tellyria not a single bucket of water was used to extinguish the fires. So how did the fires go out? It's simple: They knew and erased them. Today, despite all the weaknesses identified, there are volatile means (in the last fire 11 were used), there are dozens of fire trucks, refuelling tankers, excavators for the creation of fire lanes as well as personnel even if there are insufficient. After the latest fires and the announcements to strengthen the firefighting forces, is there any optimism that better days are coming for the forests and the environment of Cyprus in general?
Mr Paionidis is pessimistic and fears the worst. Is there worse? Both he and other former directors of the Department of Forestry and the current director tremble at the idea that a fire may break out in the Salias and Marathasa valleys or in Pera Pedi as recently happened, because the destruction of the Troodos forest is not a scenario of unscientific imagination.
In fact, six former directors of the Department had warned of the upcoming (in 2016) destruction of forests in Solia and recently. By diabolical coincidence, the last letter in which Mr. Paionides warned of the dangers of a possible fire was sent to the Department of Forestry on Saturday 23 June, just a few hours before the fire broke out in Arakapas.
But also in the case of Salia, a few days before the fire that burned 18.5 square kilometres of forest broke out, a former director of the Department of Forestry, seeing what would follow because of the problems that accumulated, sent a letter to the President of the Republic recorded the following:
"I cannot understand or accept that a state aimed at reform and modernisation allows labour disputes to be exacerbated to a significant extent by a Department that can no longer carry out its mission effectively, namely the protection of forests and nature. Wishing and praying that there will not be a great fire for which we will all be responsible."
The crime of the Forestry College
Former officials of the Department of Forestry, but current employees of the Department, consider it a crime to suspend the operation of the Forestry College, which, according to Mr. Paionides acted as a training school for the leaders of fire extinguishment.
In a letter to the agriculture minister, six former Directors of the Department of Forestry warned that suspending the College for money-saving reasons would bring suffering to the site.
Of course, not only did savings not arise but we incubated multiple costs considering that the Salia fire in itself had a cost of €110 million. This is what happens when ignorant people are involved in the management of untold treasures such as the forests of Cyprus by simply making additions that turned out to have the opposite effect.
The six former directors pointed out among other things: "We were informed at the graduation ceremony of the students of the Cyprus Forestry College on 28 July 2013, that there was a possibility of termination of the operation of the Cyprus Forestry College (D.C.K.) by the Government and refusal of the Ministry of Finance to allow the recruitment that year of new forest apprentices.
This information caused us concern and discomfort because the D.C.K. is the feeder of the Department of Forestry with human technical personnel. Implementing this decision overturns what we have achieved with great success over the last 60 years.
Experimenting on such serious issues and overturning the existing policy of manning the Department of Forestry with well-trained technical staff, only suffering to our forests and the island will occur. Similar decisions were taken by other countries with disastrous results."
The forest is not ''play''
Dealing with the forest fire is not "play" and when you don't know how even the last tree reacts, you fail. Typical is the reference of the former Director of the Department of Forests Loukas Paionidis to "F".
"In 1979 a fire broke out over Asinos and I was the first to go on the spot because I was in the area. I had no experience of water. The fire was moving on a ridge - on one side of which were ammunition depots and on the other the forest - and I had to think about what to put out. There was a big old pine tree. I told the workers to pour water on the pine tree, and the fire did disappear. I instructed the driver to refuel with water and he came back in half an hour. The fire was rekindled and was at the same level because old pines (such as this one) contain resin, tar and as much water as you throw it simply helps to temporarily suppress it until ground forces arrive to create either strips by hand or by bulldozers and this is the job of the forest firefighters".
According to Mr. Paionidis, the other option for extinguishing the fire is antipyr, a technique that was used since the establishment of the Department of Forestry by the villagers who had no water at their disposal. Mr. Paionidis explains how it works: "You choose an area and you clean the area at a width of 10-20 meters so that the fire that you will place yourself cannot pass and then you set fire at some distance so that it moves and goes out, is cut off in the clean lane you created or, if it does not go out on its own, you can deal with it relatively easily because it won't have much momentum. When it reaches the site, the main fire will find burnt earth and stop its advance." He clarifies that there is an issue when the fire approaches residential areas.
Mr. Pyonidis explains that the antipyr can be done without excavators creating a fire lane. I happened to move in front of the fire 100 meters, but the fire came and found me. I went another 100 metres and the fire still found me. It was after me. I was in the lead in the Land Rover, and it was enough for me. The same procedure was repeated and I caught up with it. We were in Galia, and if I had ''missed it'', the fire would have ended up miles away.
He also considers it a "law" that if you don't get close to the fire, it won't be extinguished. There are fires that if the area is cleaned a little before it approaches, it does not extend accordingly to the wind time, he adds.
Turkish invasion destroyed 35% of forests
On the occasion of the last major fire, reference was made to the destruction that took place in the forests at the time of the Turkish invasion, when huge fires were caused mainly as a result of the bombings. The disaster was terrifying and amounted to 35% of the most productive forests in Cyprus, namely Paphos and the northwest side of the Troodos mountain range.
The total area burned during that difficult period was about 26,000 hectares. It is worth noting that one hectare covers 10,000 square metres. It is also worth noting that since the great fire of Saita in 2007 11.8 square kilometres of forest were destroyed. The 5.6 sq.km. was a state forest and the remaining 6.2 gravel and private land. In order to demonstrate the extent of the destruction of this fire it is worth noting that it was estimated that in order to reforest all areas it would take about 480,000 trees. It is also worth noting that the individuals whose forest areas were burned were not obliged to reforest them, even if they were declared re-forestable. The recent fire has destroyed an area of 55 sq.km.
The forests of Cyprus cover 175,000 hectares corresponding to 18%-19% of the land. Of these 3-5% are private forests, shrubs and hedges and generally wild vegetation.
If we go back in time and, according to reports of the Department of Forestry (which has existed since 1879) during the Turkish occupation of Cyprus from 1570 to 1878, there was no organized management or protection of forests. The forests were almost destroyed due to uncontrolled felling of trees and other vegetation, free grazing, extensive farm clearings and large fires.
The first attempt at control was made in 1839 with the decision to impose a tax on forests, but it never materialized. In 1898, the first corps of rangers was created, which basically aimed to patrol the forests to protect and control them from the many dangers that threatened them. In 1913 the Forestry Act was adopted, the provisions of which effectively ended grazing in forests and elsewhere, determined the maximum number of animals, mainly goats, which are allowed to be reared in each area, with the consideration, of course, of some socio-economic measures in order not to harm the shepherds.
In 1940, the first mass census and declaration of many forested areas in state forests incorporated into existence state forests which were also protected and managed. The relevant decree published both the area of each forest and the spatial plans on which its delimiting appeared.
In 1967, the new Forest Legislation came into force, the provisions of which regulated everything related to forests and the person who is or comes into contact with them.
Individual property, even if the place is burned down
For decades, the opening of fire-fighting lanes that could save forests was contrary to the fact that in order to create a fire lane you had to obtain the owner's permission, and in most cases on land that has no real value. As explained to us by the Department of Forestry, the role of the lanes is twofold. On the one hand they prevent the fire from spreading beyond the lane, as long as the fire is not too large and on the other hand they are used to access the site of the fire by fire trucks/firefighters.
Fire lanes do not save the situation on their own but in combination with hydrostomies, water tanks, patrols and detection can help extinguish fires by firefighting forces.
Depending on the call of the soil, the topography and the vegetation of each area, the corresponding fire strips are created. The width of some reaches up to 40 metres.
There are cases where because there is no access to the fire sites, forest fire engines carry water tires up to half a kilometre away.
