Transcript
[TEXT ON THE SCREEN: GEORGE KONSTANTAKOPOULOS, Fire Officer, Pyrgos Fire Service]
GEORGE KONSTANTAKOPOULOS: [SUBTITLES: Certainly 2007 was a difficult year. Of course the experience we gained was huge, as far as dealing with such huge events. Disasters as large as these are hard to deal with and we gained experience through all the tragic things that happened. Of course we realised other things as well, regarding prevention for example, that we should also pay more attention to prevention. We need to keep the forest roads clear, and realise that individual citizens and state services must all help to ensure that the fires don't get out of control. Everyone must do what they can, to clear their yards, their houses and their fields. Also since 2007 we've seen a greater sense of civic responsibility from local people. We have more teams of volunteers now, people who want to help, who come and offer their help. I believe there is also better coordination between the various services. We realised that big fires need the efforts of all of us and we must be well informed and well trained in order to be more successful.]
GEORGE KONSTANTAKOPOULOS: [SUBTITLES: I'll tell you about something very recent. This year we started a programme which allows us to monitor every firefighting vehicle which takes part in a firefighting operation. We can now follow their positions through GPS, and receive information as to what condition they are in, if they have water, if they are working efficiently. It's a new addition to our efforts to suppress fires. We also have drones. This year in our area we did not have their help, but in Attiki they were valuable for surveillance and also coordination. When you have a picture from above you can see a great deal more. You can see behind the hill, what is at risk from the fire.
What else can we say has changed? Certainly there is better coordination between the services that work to suppress fires. A large fire can't be put out by just one service. We need the assistance of the Forestry, the armed forces, the municipalities and the regional self-government. Meetings of the Municipalities Local Coordinating Body or the Regional Civil Protection Coordinating Body take place more regularly and there we look at the problems and try to come up with solutions.]
GEORGE KONSTANTAKOPOULOS: [SUBTITLES: Fires are affected by many variables, we try each year to improve ourselves, through experience and the use of technology, so that we may have better results. This year for example was a very difficult year. We had a long summer drought for over four months. I believe we did well, there was coordination of the services, we of course are the main axis, we are responsible for coordinating everyone and we will keep trying to improve ourselves. Fires are a dynamic phenomenon that appear not just in our country. They can be very dangerous, with many parameters. We will always try to improve ourselves and I hope that we can deal with another such fire.]