Agios Nikolaos: new fire protection plan

A meeting with the participation of all the civil protection bodies involved was held on Wednesday 19 August at the Town Hall of Agios Nikolaos, on the initiative of Mayor Manolis Menegakis. The central conclusion of the meeting was the decision to draw up a study recording and ranking the points that present an increased risk of a fire breaking out and spreading within the boundaries of the municipality. The Lasithi Deputy Regional Authority is taking on the preparation of the study. The discussion focused on vegetation clearance in forest areas, along the road network and on embankments, as well as on the creation and maintenance of fire protection zones around settlements and infrastructure. A new meeting of the bodies was set for November, so that the progress of the works can be assessed before the new fire season.

Taking part in the meeting were the Deputy Regional Governor of Lasithi, Giannis Androulakis, the Municipality’s Secretary General, Anna Oikonomidou, the Deputy Mayor for Civil Protection, Stergios Atsalakis, the head of the Independent Civil Protection Department, Maria Tavla, the head of the Development Directorate of the Regional Unit of Lasithi, Veta Margioula, the head of Civil Protection for the Regional Unit of Lasithi, Marios Vdokakis, the councillor with special responsibility, Konstantinos Aforadakos, the director of the Lasithi Forestry Directorate, Manolis Koudoumas, the commander of the Lasithi Fire Service, fire brigade colonel Dimitris Kalliontzis, and the commander of the Agios Nikolaos Fire Service, Konstantinos Chatzidakis. This composition reflects the fact that responsibility for clearance work and preventive interventions is shared between the municipality, the region, the forestry service and the fire brigade.

The meeting took place a few days after the fire that broke out in the area of Kritsa on 16 and 17 August and mobilised ground and air forces, with activation of the 112 emergency alert system. That episode again highlighted the characteristics of this particular landscape: steep slopes, extensive scrub vegetation and settlements abutting agro-forest land. In the wider area, the municipality combines heavy tourist traffic with scattered small settlements, which makes access for fire engines and the safe removal of residents and visitors a matter of infrastructure and not only of operational planning.

The study that was agreed is expected to produce a record of the points that will be prioritised for intervention, so that clearance work is not carried out piecemeal but on the basis of risk. No timetable for its completion has been announced, nor a budget for the works that will arise from it. Nor was it clarified whether the interventions will be funded from municipal or regional resources or from central civil protection programmes. The next meeting in November will show what stage the study has reached and which works will have been set in motion for the winter months, when traditionally the bulk of vegetation clearance is carried out.