Firefighters swap Welsh Valleys for Greek mountains
FIREFIGHTERS from have swapped the Welsh valleys for the Greek mountains as they battle the raging wild fires tearing through Greece.
Craig Hope, Dean Evans, Ross Hughes and Chris Deacon, all from the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, left Wales at 4am on Sunday to join crews on the western side of Athens, where fires have destroyed houses and brought down power lines.
Craig is leading a team tasked with analysing the direction of the fires and weather and ensuring firefighters are “safe at all times”.
On Thursday afternoon, the day after the foursome spent hours protecting houses from being gobbled up by flames, Craig was “mopping up” the fire-ravaged mountainside.
“Obviously because we have flown out, we haven’t brought any engines with us,” Craig explained. “But once the fire is burning through these villages and the aircraft have stopped the fires, our crew go in as early as we can get in there and then we are mopping up and looking for all the hot spots.
“That’s what the crew are doing now; they are down in the valley. They’ve managed to get hold of a drone and they’re flying that and identifying hotspots, using thermal imaging, and our crew are going in then and making sure they’re extinguished.”
It’s a constant battle against conditions as the humidity begins to drop in the middle of the day and the wind starts building again. The risk of fires reigniting is significant, Craig said standing on the mountainside where temperatures had reached 40 degrees just a few days before.
“It’s important that we get on top of them,” Craig said. “What it also does is it allows the Greek firefighters to re-establish themselves, get back, have a rest and be ready for the next fire.”
The wildfires in Greece, which began two weeks ago, have been described as scenes from an “apocalyptic movie” and labelled “a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions” by the country’s prime minister. Earlier in the week, smoke and ash from Evia, Greece’s second-largest island just off the mainland, blocked out the sun and turned the sky orange. Pristine pine forests as well as homes and businesses have been destroyed while hundreds of people have been forced to quickly evacuate by sea to save their lives.
Surveying the scene last Thursday, Craig compared the Greek terrain to the Rhondda valley and said: “It’s like being in Cardiff and looking towards the Rhondda Valley and everything is black.”
He added: “Because we haven’t got fire engines, we’re not at the forefront with the 30 metre flames. But our job is just as important. We’re making sure there’s no more ignitions because that really does tie up resources. Mopping up is essential on these mountain fires. So it’s worthwhile, the work we’re doing.”
The four firefighters from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service teamed up with crews from all over the UK as part of the National Fire Chief Council’s National Resilience Team. The normal international deployment time is about 10 days long, according to Craig, but there is uncertainty around exactly how long they will be out there.