Forest fires in 2014 about 2.6 times “more destructive”

The former head of the Fire Brigade and analyst Andrianos Gourbatsis carried out a survey regarding the forest fires in Greece and found that while there are far fewer fires this year, they are much more destructive.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the latest fires in Malesina and Larissa resulted in the destruction of 25,830 and 14,350 acres respectively.

Mr. Gourbatsis points out that in the 1,303 documented fires that broke out between the 1^st of May and 30^th of June, about 60,990 of agricultural land and forests have burned down. During the same period in 2013 there were nearly double as many fires (1,994) which affected 35,791.7 acres of land.

This means that in 2013 each fire burned down17.9 acres of land, compared to 46.8 acres in 2014, meaning that the fires this year are about 2.6 «more destructive».