Filenews 8 October 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivassilis
A significant decrease is recorded this year in fires compared to last year, while the scorched earth was limited to a minimum, since compared to the one destroyed last year, due to the huge extent of the large fire in Arakapas - Odos, there is a decrease of 90%.
The decrease in agricultural fires reaches 40% and in forest fires 25%, while the percentage of decrease this year in forest fires compared to that of the last 10 years, also reaches 40%. This year's reduction in general for all fires is attributed in the first place to the excellent weather, since we did not have the prolonged heatwaves of last year's season and at the same time to the best strategy of dealing with them and the cooperation of the Department of Forests and the Fire Department.
As the director of the Department of Forests Charalambos Alexandrou told "F", the results this year from the response to the fires are excellent, in the sense that the fires had a limited extent after they were hit in time, while we avoided a major fire. Despite all the problems, added Mr. Alexandrou, which occurred, it was possible to deal with the fires in a timely manner and in cooperation with the Fire Department, a new strategy was implemented where with the first flames the response was immediate with all available means. He explained that this has been judged to be more effective, so that it is "hit" catalytically and immediately. That is why, he added, along with the ground means, they also send out the planes/helicopters, so that the fight against a fire is done effectively.
The director of the Department of Forests also attributed the good results this year to the fact that we had a mild summer, without the prolonged 40s with the high temperatures as happened last year. He also said that more forest firefighters were hired this year, while a large number of fires were extinguished before they even developed, because they were "hit" immediately.
The picture of rural fires is even better. According to the spokesman of the Fire Service Andreas Kettis, this year there is a decrease in fires by 40% and this is attributed to the mild period in terms of weather conditions, to the fact that the Service worked with better coordination, more importance was given to prevention and how aggressive tactics were used to control the fires, that is, from the initial stage many firefighting forces were used in cooperation always with the Department of Forests. Also increased patrols, ground and air. According to Mr. Kettis, it has been established this year that people, after last year's fire in Odos, became more sensitive and as soon as they perceive smoke they inform. Also active are the Police who make arrests of suspects in arson cases.
As the Fire Brigade finds out, the "volume" of this year's fires was limited to the mountainous areas of Limassol and Paphos mainly, where several cases were due to the work of arsonists.
It is noted that the Fire Department estimated the cost of the damage left by the fire in Arakapas and Odos at € 120 million.
From 6 mm. hectares we fell to 600
Regarding the fires that are in the zone of responsibility of the Fire Service, this year they reached 2,351 (until August) while in general the firefighters have responded to 4,504 incidents. Rural and urban fires are distributed as follows: January 337 plus 147 rural, February 332 and 167 rural, March 517 and 265 rural, April 1069 and 498 rural. In May, 603 fires were recorded and another 346 rural, in June 546 and 320 rural, in July 514 and 320 rural and in August 416 and 220 rural.
Regarding the burned area, this year until August, 600 hectares of land had been burned, while last year in the same period an area of 5,969 hectares was burned, due to the huge fire in the mountainous area of Larnaca that burned forest, trees and wild vegetation for almost six days. It is characteristic that the average burnt area last year per fire was 27.5 hectares, while this year 3.5 hectares, indicative of the fact that the scorched earth has decreased by a lot.
