Thesprotia: fire on a mountain mass at Palampas

A forest fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday 20 August in the area of Palampas in Thesprotia. According to the Fire Service announcement, reported by newsit.gr, 25 firefighters are working on the operation with two ground units of the 5th Special Forest Operations Unit and three vehicles. As the local site thespro.gr reported, the fire started at around five in the morning and is burning at an inaccessible and hard-to-reach point of a mountain mass, close to a ridge, which makes approach by ground forces difficult. At first light one firefighting aircraft and one helicopter joined the operation and are making water drops.

The time it broke out and the position of the fire explain why the operation initially relied on ground forces alone. Firefighting aircraft do not operate in the dark, so between five and seven in the morning the burden fell exclusively on the ground units. The special forest operations units are trained for precisely such conditions, since they reach on foot points that no vehicle can get to and cut firebreaks with hand tools. When the front is close to a ridge, however, the fire can pass to the opposite slope and create a second front, at which point aerial firefighting becomes decisive in keeping it contained.

Thesprotia is one of the most heavily wooded regional units of Epirus, with extensive stands of kermes oak and oak at lower altitudes and forests of fir and black pine higher up. The relief is steep, the road network in the mountains limited and the settlements small and scattered. The area’s forest land supports livestock farming, beekeeping and walking tourism, while several parts of it fall within protected zones of the Natura 2000 network. Other incidents have been recorded in Epirus recently, among them a fire in forest land at Vovousa in Zagori, an indication that the pressure on the region’s forest firefighting mechanism is not confined to one point. Restoring a burnt mountain area in Epirus is slower than in the Mediterranean ecosystems of the south, since deciduous and coniferous forests need decades to recover, while in the meantime the steep slopes are exposed to erosion and to landslides with the first autumn rains.

Fire crews were continuing the operation with the aim of containing the fire and preventing it from spreading across the area’s mountain mass. When the figures were released, no burnt area had been announced, no injuries were reported and no question of evacuating a settlement had arisen. The causes remain unknown and will be investigated by the Fire Service’s investigative units once the fire is extinguished. The same day found much of the country at high fire risk, while temperatures across mainland Greece were rising, a condition that makes both extinguishing the fire and guarding the site after the flames are contained more difficult.