Firefighters were called heroes as they managed to tame the threatening blazes. One automatically considers the pilots of the fatal Canadair, who lost their lives fighting the flames in Platanistos Karystos, heroes.
However, simultaneously, the titanic struggle of the firefighters who fought with the ground means for several days to limit the fire fronts so that their fellow citizens are not threatened also stands out.
Words are at a loss in front of a shocking image making the rounds on the Internet. The image of a fireman who, having given, with a spirit of self-sacrifice, a fight against fires, is now exhausted and lying down. The fireman sleeps on the burnt earth, with a fire hose as a mattress, after an all-night battle with the fire in Itea, Evros.
Miltos Deligiorgis is depicted in this photo as one of the dozens of firefighters on the fire fronts that broke out in Aristinos and Itea of Evros.
"After an overnight battle with the flames, I laid out my deckchair. Come when you find a place on the sand, and I'll give you my towel because I probably won't need it this year. 08/05/2023," he wrote in a post on his personal Facebook account.
Meanwhile, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias appealed to people to be exceptionally careful to not start fires in the coming week, warning that it would be a very high-risk period for wildfires, in an interview on Sunday during the programme "Ora Ellados" on the television network Open.
He stressed that most fires were the result of human actions and advised both individuals and services, including local authorities, to show particular care.
"From tomorrow, Monday, we will have a lot of wind, the well-known 'meltemia' that according to the National Meteorological Service will reach seven, eight or even nine Beaufort in many parts of Greece," the minister warned.
"We are living in an era of climate crisis and we see this on Corfu, where last week we had a great wildfire in the north section of the island and yesterday we had extreme weather phenomena with strong rain and hail," he pointed out.
Unfortunately, Kikilias added, "a major role is played by human hands" and he announced the arrest of an 87-year-old man who was caught by police in the act of starting a fire using flammable liquid, which the fire brigade was able to very quickly extinguish.
The minister also noted that the "the state gives funds in good time each year for the clearing and fire protection of public spaces. Local authorities, in their turn, have an obligation to use every last euro of these funds. There must be timely clearing and also better and more effective checking."
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