Fires will get worse, experts say
Firefighting experts yesterday told an Athens seminar that Greece must take the necessary measures to fight increasingly fierce blazes as temperatures rise and land dries out. Interior Minister Pro-kopis Pavlopoulos told delegates that hundreds of illegal landfills across the country are often the site of blazes, either accidental or intentional. Pavlopoulos’s comments came hours after firefighters managed to control a large fire at Attica’s main landfill, northwest of the capital. It is unclear whether the blaze, believed to have started from four smaller fires, was caused by arsonists or by a methane explosion triggered by the rotting garbage. There were no reports of injuries in the Ano Liosia blaze. Pavlopoulos said the government had earmarked 35 million euros for the firefighting coffers of local authorities. Greek fires are expected to «increase in size and intensity» over the coming years,» according to the country’s fire chief Atha-nassios Kontokostas.
