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The 2009 Greek forest fires were a series of massive wildfires that broke out across several areas in Greece during the summer of 2009. The fires began in Grammatiko, about twenty-five miles north-east of the Greek capital, Athens on 21 August 2009 and spread quickly towards the suburbs, engulfing fourteen towns within the next three days. 10,000 residents of Agios Stefanos were asked to evacuate the area. Approximately 600 firefighters and soldiers, twelve fire-fighting aircraft and nine helicopters were deployed to extinguish the fire. These fires are the worst since 2007, though no casualties have been reported. ==Background and result of destruction from the fire== The fires of 2009 began on the night of August 21, 2009 and burned over the next four days, covering approximately 21,000 hectares of pine forest, olive groves, shrub land and farmland. The fires affected 15 municipalities and communities and destroyed 60 homes, damaging another 150. The fires began in Grammatiko village, about 40 km north-east of Athens, and spread to the mountains of eastern Attika. Around 72 houses were damaged in Grammatiko and other badly hit communities were Stamata and Rodopoli. More than 1,000 fire-fighters and soldiers were placed on duty over the weekend, and a total of 19 planes and helicopters worked to fight the fires, dropping around 14,000 tonnes of water on one day alone (24 August 2009). Aircraft were drafted-in from Italy, France and Cyprus. The cost of hiring the fire services 14 helicopters for about 120 flying hours is estimated at 30 million euros. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Greece, The destruction from three days of intense forest fires “confirms the inability of the state to effectively manage the country’s forests”.〔Athens News, Friday, 28 August 2009, reported by Damian Mac Con Uladh〕 Unlike the 2007 Greek forest fires, the 2009 fires took place in eastern Attika, which is a forested-suburban region known for its illegal ribbon development, where thousands of illegal homes have been legalised ahead of successive elections by incumbent governments. This area is also expected to undergo further development and population increase as a result of new urban plans for the area.〔 Gavril Xanthopoulos, a scientist at the Greek Forest Research Institute in Athens, and one of the country’s leading forest fire experts is quoted as saying: “These areas are what we call a wildland-urban interface, which are not just peculiar to Greece, but exist in all European Mediterranean countries”. The mix of homes and forest can drain fire resources, because the fight is targeted at burning homes and property, allowing forest fires to spread faster. Xanthopoulos claims to have alerted civil protection authorities a fortnight before the fires warning that the drought in vegetation had reached the levels of 2007, that there was an extreme likelihood of fires occurring and that this was reflected in the area’s fire danger map. The meltemi winds, typical of this time of year made the fires head south, which was a predictable trajectory for the fire.〔 WWF has called for radical reform of the fire service, which has been weakened, since 1981, by political interference in recruitment and promotion, bureaucratisation, the removal of fire-fighting responsibilities from the forestry service and abolition of the dasokommando, which is a Greek specialised fire-fighting unit. According to Konstantinos Liarikos, environmental programme director of WWF, part of the existing fire service needs to be especially dedicated to forest fire-fighting, and emphasis should be on suppression rather than prevention: the cost of hiring an Erickson Air-Crane Helitanker fire-fighting helicopter is 800,000 euros a season, and is equivalent to the cost of hiring 800 seasonal fire-fighters, which WWF claims would be more effective. In addition, citizen awareness programmes are needed to educated suburban residents about fire prevention and fire-fighting. For example, the connection of electric pumps to swimming pools to help residents to use water for dousing fires. Planting fire-resistant tree species in gardens, such as bay laurel, poplar, acacia and oak, can also help save homes. In 2007, fires spread more slowly in rural areas of the Peloponnese where a farming population kept areas well-managed and clear of grass.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2009 Greek forest fires」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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