Land burnt in Greece in 2024 was 24% less than the average for the last 20 years, Kikilias says

Despite facing 4,500 fires in what experts agreed was the toughest fire season of the last 40 years, the amount of land burnt in Greece in 2024 was 24% less than the average of the last 20 years, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias noted in an interview on Open television on Sunday.

He stated that the amount of forest burnt in 2024 was just 1,430 hectares, down from an average of 11,600 hectares of forest burnt in the last 20 years.

According to Kikilias, these figures indicated the huge and sensational effort made in 2024 by fire fighters, volunteers, forest rangers, forestry employees, regional governors, mayors, the armed forces, local government and the Greek police. In the same year, he pointed out, there had been major and destructive fires abroad, such as the Portugal fire that burnt more than 100,000 hectares, in which seven people lost their lives.

“We have to become more resilient, there is no doubt. I can tell you how we achieved this. There were two main tools: firstly, the new dogma for dealing with forest fires. In other words, everyone into the field more quickly, together with forest rangers, fire breaks, together with volunteers, the Army and the police, all organised through joint training that we carried out during the winter and which brought results. And, of course, the new technology, with drones flying 24 hours a day and locating fires very early. We also had fully loaded aerial patrols flying over Attica and wherever they were needed, meaning that they could intervene immediately.

“Also, a huge legacy of the Mitsotakis government. The prime minister himself allocated 2.1 billion euros to civil protection. We are already signing and taking delivery of works amounting to 1.8 billion euros in tenders, such as the seven new Canadair aircraft, 10 medium-type helicopters, 1,100 fire engines – 300 will be delivered this year before the fire season of 2025 – uniforms for our volunteers and fire fighters. Radar and weather stations, AI, because we are going up a level as regards how we locate the start of a fire or a flood. This was a lot of hard work done throughout the year,” Kikilias noted.

He also pointed to additional hirings in the fire brigade and forestry service, while concluding that education on resilience to climate change must now begin in schools.