Filenews 30 July 2023 - by Angelos Nicolaou
The ideal mix for starting large fires has been observed in recent years in Mediterranean countries, according to George Boustras, Professor of Risk Assessment at European University Cyprus, who last March was appointed to the position of Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides on Crisis Management and Civil Protection issues.
In an interview with "F", he explains the reasons why the Mediterranean was at the mercy of heat waves and fires. It warns that fires will continue to break out as long as they are part of the natural cycle and places great emphasis on prevention, characterizing fuel management as the number one risk for starting and spreading fires. It refers to crisis response plans and ways in which citizens can contribute by changing their daily habits.
-When and how did you start to become more actively involved in the issues of fires in Cyprus?
-I have been dealing with the issue since July 2016 when I was appointed by the Council of Ministers of the first government of Nikos Anastasiades together with Aristos Ioannou and George Hadjigeorgiou, former director of the Department of Forests and former director of the Fire Service, respectively, so that we could make – I think it was the first time – an assessment of what happened in the Solea fire and give some proposals to modernize the three services dealing with the subject. Namely, the Department of Forests of the Fire Service and Civil Defense. It was a devastating fire that, in addition to the scorched earth it left behind, claimed the lives of two forest firefighters. The task of the committee of experts was to study the fire-fighting system and, once the gaps had been identified, to make recommendations so that we would not experience similar situations again in the future. We suggested about 60 possible actions, some medium-term, some short-term, others long-term. From then until the end of the previous government's term of office, I had no information about what progressed from this, what I learned I learned from the announcements made in which the then government said that too much was done to make the management system safer in such cases.
-Did you research the system at the time, did you study similar systems abroad, did you make suggestions, but you have not been informed about their implementation?
-To be honest, I expected that after the submission of the research there would be a workshop with everyone involved, so that we could explain to them exactly what it is we wanted to do. Many actions we submitted were not tangible actions, they had to do with culture change. So that's what we had to work on. I realise that political time is not the same as the time we have, so that is the end of the matter.
–In the first month of his election, the new President Nikos Christodoulides, in March 2023, appointed you to the position of Special Advisor on crisis management and civil protection. What message was sent with this action?
-Yes. With his election, the new President asked me to take over, without salary in order to symbolize, special adviser on civil protection and crisis management. Since March, what I have realized is that President Christodoulides is very sensitive to these issues, he takes them very seriously and they are very high on his agenda. It doesn't necessarily mean that for all politicians it's like that, because as you know, usually politicians deal with these issues after the crisis has happened. But President Christodoulides watches them, is informed and, being an academic, he does not only see the political aspect, he perceives things as they happen, as they happen. I am also trying, with all the things I know, and always working with the relevant state services, to prepare some new things and possibly some reforms. The political decision is left to the Government.
-In his capacity as a professor, and as director of Cerides of European University Cyprus, he represents Cyprus in international forums. Is there a need for states to cooperate in dealing with crises?
-At the University we have the laboratory that employs 30 people and we have received over €10 million EU funding from competitive programmes. We are trying to give, apart from the hat of the President's special adviser, the scientific part, along with all the Universities of Cyprus of course, to come with new tools to help on this subject. .
-The weather phenomena we are experiencing today with the rise in temperatures and the increase in the number of large and destructive fires caused?
-To give a photo of what is happening. This year in Cyprus, southern Italy, Greece and Algeria we are experiencing what France, Spain and Portugal experienced last year. What is it that they experienced? Two things. We had rainfall, a lot of rainfall at the beginning of summer. It went well from one point onwards the rainfall. If we remember late June – early July we had heavy rainfall. This means at the same time growth of vegetation in the forests. We had relatively low temperatures. The extreme heat started suddenly in early July and went to the temperatures we see today. At 45 degrees, at 44 degrees... This means that we had a lot of fuel due to the rain, which until early summer was growing and suddenly dried up. It dried, we had no moisture in the fuel, we had very high temperatures, so there was wind, another difficult factor. So we had the ideal mixture, the perfect tinder, to start big fires.
In Cyprus until today fortunately we managed to avoid major fires because the system worked and responded very quickly. We didn't have the very strong winds. In Rhodes what we see is what I described: Great vegetation until a month ago, sudden drying, becoming fuel, winds, high temperatures, start of the fire and unfortunately things went there.
Therefore, large areas of the Mediterranean are burning and will continue to burn. Can anything be done to deal with extreme weather events, as long as the events with high temperatures and the aftermath do not go away?
The main problem we face is that all countries are working together and they are oriented in relation to fighting fires. What we need to work on most is prevention. Prevention of fires from many directions. First of all, we need to manage fuel. There is so much low vegetation and branches that fall to the ground, without knowing if we will have the 'fuel' afterwards. Perhaps we should think of different ways of cleaning up the fuel, possibly with controlled burning in the forest. That is, piece by piece to burn low so that there is no such fuel. The main problem we have is that woodland areas have been abandoned, rural development is not what it used to be. As a result, from the moment the man left around the forest, who was doing development and agricultural production, so he was careful, cultivated and cleaned compulsorily, we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where the city is approaching the forest.
As a result, we have all the problems we have and homes are now threatened. Suddenly the fire can escape and find itself in the city. The trees, the reforestation that is taking place is very good, but we have much more forest than we had in previous years. That means an even bigger chunk of fuel.
The competent services that assist in extinguishing and preventing fire have at their disposal more modern means for fire protection.
The Anastasiades government, after the fire in Arakapas, had started a program of technological upgrading of services with the introduction of a crisis management system. The first phase is over. Visual detection and automatic surveillance systems have already been implemented in a very large part. The aim is to have a proper management system.
In relation to prevention, this is something that is not only new for us in Cyprus, but generally a new part throughout Europe. It is an effort that must begin and must be done in the right way.
For example, this year we had the introduction of the institution of the coordinator. In the past many people have said - it may have been true - I do not have my own opinion, that there was a malfunction in communication between the operators. What happened very early this year, now in April, was the appointment of a national coordinator for forest fires, who is the director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment. The services which are still autonomous have not been replaced, but there is a coordinator, it is in contact with everyone and has the power to make final decisions which would obviously be more difficult if left to the services. A big step has been taken.
Moving faster – Phenomena are accelerating
-Is it possible that there will be no more catastrophic fires?
-In order for there to be no more fires, everything must be burned. Fire is part of the cycle of life. Fires always happened. Rhodes was burned several times and 40 years ago the forest was reborn. Part of the regeneration of the forest is fire.
Things are moving much faster than we had predicted. That is, there were summits and decisions on climate change. I am not sure, looking at the fires, that what we predicted in Paris, for example, is what we have to do. We need to move even faster. Phenomena are accelerating. Climate change is testing the Mediterranean.
Meteorologists this year and next year said it would be very difficult because of El Niño, the phenomenon linked to rising ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific that is responsible for changes in water and Mediterranean temperatures. Last year and the year before were much easier. We didn't have the fires we had this year. We did not have bad climatic conditions. The last bad fire was that of Arakapas.
-Can citizens contribute to fire prevention? What should we change in our habits?
The citizen must first of all be educated. The state must bring schools and universities, into the workplace, into the elderly and explain what is happening, what will happen, how we should contribute.
Many fires break out in rubbish dumps and recycling sites. This is a point that should give cause for concern. That; Are all recycling sites necessary? All garbage dumps? Can we reduce them? I don't know the answer. I hope we can reduce them. But also those which remain we can look at with a little more attention. The citizen has to change a great deal. In order not to need the garbage dump, we need to learn how to properly recycle what it is that we throw away and where to throw it. Make fewer spaces and better regulated. We need to see how we implement the legal framework and regulations to tighten things up.
To see that the cost of fires is so high and therefore we need to invest earlier. If necessary, a closed recycling plant should be done.
Volunteering was not used in Cyprus
In other countries they make donations to the state, with the purchase of fire trucks and ambulances and support for other state services. Why don't we see it here?
Another thing that the citizen needs to change his habit has to do with volunteering. An attempt has been made to regulate it, I do not know whether it is being implemented and where the citizen is involved. You don't want the citizen to put out fires. You want him on patrols, alert, reporting incidents to the authorities. They are much easier and less dangerous. Volunteering has not been used properly in Cyprus, yet. While it is the greatest legacy that society has when used correctly. When something happens, people will run to help. Society needs to be much more mature, but this cannot be done without guidance.
