Parnitha fire a 'biblical disaster', Papandreou says

Visiting the charred slopes of Mount Parnitha on Friday, following the devastating fire that swept across the mountain and much of the Mount Parnitha National Park overnight, main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou spoke of a "biblical disaster" for which there was "justified outrage".

Previously, he had been briefed on the extent of the damage by the mayor of Menidi, a west Athens district on Parnitha's slopes.

"We must stand by all those who fought and are still fighting the fire - the forest fire-fighters and the local bodies - whose indignation we are hearing at the state's neglect," he said, while noting that this was not a time to talk about who was responsible but about the "major ecological disaster".

At the same time, he underlined that responsibility for the disaster did exist and that those responsible would be made to pay.

Papandreou was next due to visit the two other areas stricken by fire, Argalasti in Pelion and Agia in Larisa, where two people lost their lives as a result of the blaze on Thursday.

The fire on Mount Parnitha - a national park that is home to several endemic species and one of the few remaining areas of forest near the Greek capital - began to the north in Dervenochoria on the mountain's western flank and then a second front caught fire further south.

By Thursday night it had advanced to the top of the peaks surrounding Athens and ringed the capital's skyline, threatening the northwestern suburbs of Menidi and Thrakomakedones and forcing authorities to evacuate the Mont Parnes casino hotel.

The fires came after a six-day heat wave with temperatures stuck above 40 degrees Celsius, reaching as high as 46C earlier in the week, which was the worst on record in the past 110 years. At least nine deaths as a result of heatstroke were reported, while hundreds were hospitalised, and there were also extensive power cuts as the country's electricity grid struggled to cope with demand and heat-induced damage.

Fire brigade officials said many of the fires that raged across Greece on Thursday had been caused by explosions in electricity pylons due to the heat, though arson was being investigated in some cases.



Caption: Athenians watch the huge fire burning the thick forest on Mount Parnitha, some 20 km away from Athens, on Friday, 29 June 2007. The Mont Parnes hotel casino on the peak and camping sites have been evacuated. ANA-MPA/SIMELA PANTZARTZI



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Papoulias appeals for environmental protection



President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Friday issued a dramatic appeal for better protection of the environment, speaking in Kavala where he was due to take part in celebrations of the feast day of the city's patron saint, the Apostle Paul, and events marking the 94th anniversary of the city's liberation on June 29, 1913.



Speaking at a ceremony during which he was declared an honourary citizen of Kavala, Papoulias referred to the major wildires that have erupted in many parts of the country, including Attica prefecture (in the greater Athens area).



"Yesterday I saw the Attica sky turn dark from the conflagration, and my heart bled. It was one of those moments that makes the human brain stop. Where are we headed? What kind of a world are we creating? What will we leave behind us?. There is no time for complacency. Environmental protection must be our number one priority," he said.



Papoulias said that each and every citizen, individually and collectively, "must join forces to demand respect of nature, even if this affects smaller or large interests, even if this displeases some".



Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Papoulias.


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And saddly this disaster will make a good pre-election dispute..And most saddly this park will become a park of concrete...

It might be useful if this chain effect:
conflagration --> concrete

will be replaced by:
conflagration --> reforestation


This could be combined with severe castigation, so as to avoid any purposeful harm to the forests.

What are the odds of that?..

If one declares something as impossible, so as to try to be realistic, it might very well be that the odds are zero, since we have a self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the other hand, if one tries to struggle and takes the adequate means, he might have higher odds.

It is not exactly definable how the odds are, but the players who have difficulties to see anything besides a numeric difference can maintain their mindsets and have been indirectly supported, if we follow the first strategy.

It's not a matter of self fullfiling of prophecy. It is just quite hard if not impossible to bring the parnitha park to its previous glory.. I guess reforestation efforts will begin pronto but it is 25000 acres of fir we're talking about and noumerous other plants unique and delicate..Pine trees wont make it for firs...
I guess we pose 2 different sides of the same coin.The one which is quite pessimistic or objective and the other which is optimistic.Being an ultra optimist though leads us to another thread in this forum concering the new Usican trend.Being an ultra optimist someone said is quite a form of denyal and sometimes self "blindness".On the other hand beiing ultra optimist brings happiness to the individual.the thing is... Is it really happiness or imposed "happiness" ?.
For me the park is destroyed in a very large degree and it will take decades to be fully restored if it will ever do so.

It was to establish an action-consequence relationship that shall minimise the likelihood of appearance of the action, so as to try to condition the human being, to avoid it.

Another case is the preparedness, which shouldnt be diminshed, even if the previously mentioned measures have been taken. This possibly wasnt the situation in Parnitha either.


Of course, you are right concerning the degree of devastation.

It was arson; 100 fires stared at the same time,write after the heatweave

finished.Something is not right.The greek secret service as to start a

investagation.

It might really be significant to gather information regarding all possible motivations (goals) arsonists might have, so as attempt to specifically tackle the situation.

Motivations might include:

- destroying nature as a fun game
- destroying forests so as to harm the environment
- destroying forests so as to harm the tourism industry
- destroying forests so as to enable new land to develop
- destroying forests so as to profit from the reforestation
- destroying forests so as to harm the Greek people
- ...

Has Greece declared some of these areas as "National Parks" which would never have construction on them for perpetuity? If they did that, there would be no motivation for arson since a fire would only bring about replanting rather than construction.