Pafos Live 12 June 2024
Charalambos Alexandrou, former Director of the Department of Forests
The week of 13 to 19 May was designated for 2024 as our Forest Protection Week to highlight the need to protect them from the worst threat, fires. The problem of forest fires is a difficult and complex problem which is now also a safety issue. According to the National Risk Assessment of the Republic of Cyprus of 2018, forest fires present the highest risk, compared to other natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and coastal erosion. In the last 25 years we have had 9 deaths, 83 injuries, destruction of 48 premises as well as destruction of 14 fire trucks and 21 other vehicles and machinery. The economic damage from the loss of forest land alone is sensational as it is estimated to exceed €50,000,000 per year.
The explosion and spread of forest fires is expected to continue to get worse for two main reasons, rural exodus and climate change. A difficult and complex problem that gets worse can only be tackled with an integrated management system and indeed there must be continuous and comprehensive improvement of all three pillars of the system, prevention, preparedness and extinguishing.
It is true that considerable progress has been made in recent years, but more remains to be done than has been done. It is not only us who are not preparing as we should, it seems that the problem is more general, both at European and global level. We see it in special reports (European Climate Risk Assessment Report of the European Environment Agency published on March 11, 2024), unfortunately we also see it in the field with large catastrophic fires. Seeing that not everything that should be done to deal with the problem, I had said and I repeat now that "difficult years are coming". The reason for this article was the fact that, although there are many topics, discussions about forest fires are always monopolized by aircraft. It cannot go unnoticed that there are no drivers for the new machinery that has been received, including dozers, which are as important as aircraft, or that we are in a period of high risk and vacancies for forest firefighters have not yet been filled. Based on my knowledge and experience, the following are presented and/or commented on the points on which the further improvement of our system should be focused.
(a) Provision of the necessary forces and means.
i. Filling the shortages of forest officials who are undoubtedly the brain and heart of the system. Unfortunately, the suspension of the curriculum of the Diploma of Forestry of the Forestry College and
The endless debates about its reoffer, for more than five years, which always end in deadlock, cause terror of the collapse of the entire system. The decision to suspend was taken in 2015 and was a consequence of the economic crisis and specifically to limit recruitment in the public service. Therefore, an immediate decision to lift the suspension and offer this program as offered until 2015 and after any discussions on the adaptation and/or modification of the program.
ii. Upgrading of the Fire Protection Sector of the Department of Forests so that the Sector reflects the magnitude of the problem it is called upon to manage.
iii. Filling the shortages of forest firefighters for staffing fire trucks and filling the gaps in the system.
iv. Coverage of shortages in other specialized personnel, especially drivers, so that the new machines that have been received are not idle.
v. Filling shortages in fire trucks and other machinery and vehicles, in particular rapid response fire trucks.
(b) Need for the implementation in rural areas of an integrated fire management system, similar to that applied by the Department of Forests in its area of responsibility, as well as the assignment of responsibility to the Department of Forests. However, the responsibility for the protection of settlements, individual residences, premises and infrastructure will lie with the Fire Service.
(c) Need for vegetation management. While vegetation is the only one of the three permanent factors determining the risk of explosion and expansion of fires on which humans can intervene, not enough has been done. Implementation of Vegetation Management Plans including:
i. Active forest management. For God's sake, not to the doctrine of "virgin nature."
ii. Completion of the Plan for the Prevention of Major Catastrophic Fires.
iii. Implementation of Forest Fire Prevention Plans in populated areas.
iv. Management of vegetation on forest edges either through agricultural activities or grazing.
v. Beware of afforestation of agricultural land. Not the reforestation of abandoned agricultural land that is burned, but the reactivation of agriculture.
(d) Arrangement of forces. Dispersion of forces so that there is early detection and intervention and as a rule the maximum time of intervention is ten (10) minutes, with a sufficient number of forces.
(e) Timely mobilisation of a sufficient number of forces. Assessment of the fire and mobilization of a sufficient number of forces in no time. "If a fire has the potential to develop into a major catastrophic fire, don't wait, mobilize in no time as much force as is needed to extinguish a large fire." The mobilization of forces on the basis of Plans. It always remains a minimum force on the basis of a Plan that is not mobilized in any way. This principle is "Law" and there should be no "violation".
(f) Yes to air firefighting, but flying means are not a panacea. Aircraft cannot extinguish a fire on their own, in a large fire, they may or may not be able to operate. Flying means are effective at the initial stage. The strategic objective of ten primary small aircraft (eight planes and two helicopters, six privately owned and four under hire), is correct in the first phase, dispersed in order to intervene early at the initial stage. It seems that, while we all talk about investing more in prevention, the system invests more in air firefighting and suppression.
(g) The decision to transfer air firefighting from the Department of Forests to the National Guard is not correct. This position has been fully substantiated by a relevant Note and is not currently being developed. In my humble opinion, suffice it to say that this decision was taken, not only without study, but without even explaining the reasoning.
(h) Bearing in mind that no decision has been taken to improve the operating status of the Aircraft Unit, due to the serious risks they pose to the safety of flight operations, the operation of the Unit must be immediately suspended.
(i) Utilization of technology generally complementary to the existing system such as Automatic Fire Detection Systems, Unmanned Aircraft, Telecommunication Systems, etc. for early detection, image transfer and identification of perpetrators setting deliberate fires.
(j) Crisis Management Plans. Crises cannot be dealt with by just one Agency, the involvement not only of all competent Bodies but of the entire state is necessary, which is why they are characterized as crises. It is the Crisis Management Plans that will ensure coordination and effectiveness, not the creation of a coordinating body.
(k) Completion of the preparation (recording) of the Framework (Manual) for Forest Fire Management by filling the gaps that arise today, such as the recording of the general policy and principles of forest fire management, as well as the recording of guidelines for the methods and practices of firefighting operations.
(l) In the context of improving training, it is necessary to develop a complete training system where all the jobs of the fire fighting management system, qualifications and training for each job that must be certified will be defined.
(m) Dealing with the large number of intentional fires, which reach almost 40% and constitute one of the biggest problems, since no matter how much we invest in prevention, the desired results will not be achieved. My dream is to install a system capable of operating 24/7/365. I appreciate that soon,
There will be such a possibility either with a properly equipped plane, with drones or with satellite.
(n) Need to attach even greater importance to investigating the causes. To work in investigating the causes, with the same zeal as with extinguishing. It will help the most.
(o) The need for international cooperation will be growing ever greater. For it to be effective, it is necessary to set a maximum time for the deployment of aid, which should be as short as possible.
Concluding comment. In short and simpler terms, the fires we are experiencing today are not the fires we had, they are not the fires we knew. They have changed and are constantly changing. If things are left as they are, we should know that, over the years, there will be favorable conditions that if a fire breaks out and is not extinguished in its very early stage, the brutality of the phenomenon will be so intense that no force will be able to stop it because millions of tons of dry branches, needles, resins and essential oils will give so much food to the flames and such speed. Where all human forces and all forest fire-fighting resources are concentrated on the spot, they will not be able to offer anything. Just like an explosives explosion. We will have fires worse than the Arakapas fire in 2021. This is the worsening of the problem and from here it has been concluded that "difficult years are coming". So there is a need for decisions today.
This article was published in Kathimerini on Sunday, May 26th, 2024
