Mitsotakis – More than a million acres of green were burned – Mistakes were made

Full coverage to the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias for his handling and his coordinating role during the catastrophic fires, which destroyed more than one million acres of greenery, was given by the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from the floor of Parliament during the relevant debate of political leaders.

Gaps were observed

He admitted, however, that there were gaps in the field of prevention but also that the preparation was not enough to deal with the fires, stressing that we need to see what went wrong in detail.

At the same time, he defended the evacuation policy through “112”, emphasizing that 112 was activated, which proved its value, while he made special reference to the strengthening of the fire brigade with staff, new vehicles and aerial means.

“We had 74 aircraft, more than ever. The country had planned to equip itself with more and some were tested for the first time. We had planned to intervene in 23 dangerous areas, settlements that were very close to forests”, he said characteristically.

“We had planned to intervene in 21 dangerous areas, which had characteristics similar to those in Mati. These interventions were made,” he said

Human lives, settlements and infrastructure were protected

The Prime Minister described the heat as painful and spread fires throughout the Mediterranean. “We had a prolonged heatwave that we had not experienced since 1987. We had planned to invest in Civil Protection, which turned into a militant state entity,” he said.

“Despite the intensity of the fires, no settlement was completely burned. We have achieved our goal of protecting human lives, settlements and critical infrastructure,” he said, adding that there was an escape route in Ippokratios Politia to evacuate citizens safely and quickly. On the road that connects Sounio with Lavrio there are two signs that guide citizens on how to get away to the sea in case of danger. In the fire in Varybobi, he said that superhuman efforts were made to prevent power outages in Athens.

We were called upon to manage at the beginning of August 1,279 fires, about 60 a day, many of which were the product of arson.

Referring specifically to Vilia, he pointed out that the entire state mechanism was activated. “Hundreds of water drops were made and despite the great mobilization, it took three days to extinguish it. Tell us where the mistake was made,” he said.

Let’s see what went wrong

“Mistakes were also made,” he admitted, adding that “we were better prepared than ever before, but this preparation was not enough to deal with the fires and the result is that we may have had less damaged property than some might have expected. They were waiting to see the extent of the fires and this is something that forces us to see in detail what went wrong and especially what we can do better from now on. ”

“My public apology was a political act with a message, it is a call to learn from a negative experience in order to become better,” he said.

Regarding the compensation of the victims, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated: “We are already starting to heal our wounds all over the country. The recording of the losses has already been completed. 1,135 applications have been submitted, corresponding to 10.5 million euros in compensation. The state has never acted earlier in the payment of compensation.”