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Eight days of flames tearing through these virgin forests left only blackened branches and ashy ground. Twenty-two countries have sent personnel and equipment to help Greece. On Evia, the front line of this growing disaster, we found Slovak firefighters side by side with their Greek counterparts, while helicopters and planes buzzed overhead, dropping water on the ground. smoking.
Among these professionals, there was perhaps the most confronting spectacle in this history: volunteers, mostly young men, armed with fire extinguishers or whatever water they could carry. Blackened with soot, their breath hoarse after days of exposure to smoke and flames, they looked desperate.
Fighting comes and goes. There are times when the firefighters seem to have driven their enemy back, the flames choking on the soggy dirt, but these apparent victories can be fleeting. A single flaming pine nut, rolling on one road, can start a new fire on the other side. Often times, fires simply reignite in the fierce, exhausting heat of the day. The rolling terrain and thick forest mean that many fires are simply inaccessible, so they must rage along their paths without a hitch.
To stand in the middle of it all is disorienting. The scorching heat, sweltering smoke, ferocity of fires and the intense activity all around are sometimes difficult to deal with. The sight of so many people who see their lives literally go up in smoke is heartbreaking.
“Right now everyone is there, you are all there to take these dramatic images,” one of the volunteers told me. “But in a year, where will you be?
Without the forests, many in these communities will have nothing, he told me.
Trees are the source of the resin that supports many livelihoods here. But these forests are not plantations; trees grew naturally on these hills and communities developed around them. Simple replanting won’t work either, as only mature trees produce resin, and reaching that maturity can take three decades.
More than 500 fires still rage in Greece. They may continue to burn for many days or even weeks, but their deep, scarring impact will be felt long into the future.
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