“Like earthquakes, we need to protect ourselves from wildfires” says academic Christos Zerefos
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The country must protect itself from fires just as it protects itself from earthquakes, academic Christos Zerefos told Athens Macedonian News Agency in an interview, who warned that in coming decades Greece will have an additional 40 days of wildfires.
We must study the phenomenon deeply, he says, adding that the cause of the catastrophe are the lack of roads for escape, pine trees and the mentality that a large road can act as a barrier to prevent the spread of fire.
“Up until now, engineers focused on anti-seismic protection, and rightly so since our country is seismogenic. On the other hand it is also prone to fires. The fires in our country, as we very well know, can kill. It happened unfortunately in Attica, and in Ileia 11 years ago and will be repeated in the future if we don’t take the right measures.”
“Suffice to say that by the end of the decade, we will have an additional 40 forty days of forest fires. It already seems impossible to understand that a building in a flammable area is legalised. We have a massive deficit in the correct town planning of residencies and roads,” he said.
Source: AMNA