State looks to the future after devastating fires
MOUNTAIN communities yesterday made a desperate plea for immediate financial assistance in the wake of the fierce forest fires that swept through the Saittas area last weekend.
Initial estimates place the cost of the blaze at £1 million. That includes damage to houses, farmsteads, agricultural equipment and crops.
About 20 dwellings were damaged in the blaze, three of them razed to the ground.
Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou said the Cabinet would tomorrow be discussing a comprehensive plan to bail out afflicted residents.
He said the government was also looking into whether EU funds could be made available.
“But whatever the response from Brussels, it’s clear the government will support the inhabitants and replace the damages,” he pledged.
According to Fotiou, cleaning up of the area would begin today, followed by a massive reforestation operation.
“For every tree we lost, we want to plant two others,” he said.
And he urged any volunteers, including schoolchildren, to join the effort.
Between 10 to 12 square kilometres of forestland were reduced to ash in what was possibly the worst fire on record.
The Forestry Department has predicted it could take as many as 15 to 20 years for the area to look green again.
“But to get back to where we were before [the fires], I think we’ll need 80 to 100 years,” said department head Aristos Ioannou.
During the last five years or so, added Ioannou, the Forestry Department had created fire-breaks spanning some 4,000 km in length in total.
Despite these measures, he said the public should be vigilant and refrain from dangerous practices such as singeing undergrowth.
Initial reports spoke of overhead power wires short-circuiting and igniting nearby trees, but this has yet to be confirmed.
The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has dispatched crews at the site to establish the cause of the fire.
“If indeed a power cable was at fault, then that should be easy to determine,” said Andreas Louka of the Electromechanical Department.
He said high temperatures may have expanded and loosened the wires, and then high winds could have caused them to swing and make contact with tree branches.
Another possibility was fault connections on the electricity pylon.
The government meanwhile is being criticised of omissions that are said to have denied authorities the means to tackle crises of this scale.
Harris Georgiades, a spokesman for opposition party DISY, said there were not enough firefighting helicopters to go around because successive tenders were scrapped in dubious circumstances.
Agriculture Minister Fotiou debunked the claims, pointing out that the government had rented two choppers after it became apparent they could not go ahead with a purchase.
The minister further shot down accusations that the actual firefighting operation was hampered by shoddy organisation and coordination.
“Let those who say this give us one concrete example,” he dismissed.
“The fact that we managed to contain the blaze by Saturday morning was nothing short of a feat. And contrary to some claims, people in threatened areas were evacuated very quickly,” added Fotiou.
For his part, director of the Fire Department Andreas Nicolaou said they responded to the first call about a fire within minutes, praising firefighters for their “zeal and, in many cases, their selflessness.”
But he conceded the department was short on manpower and equipment, such as two-way radios.
The mukhtar of Kato Amiandos, a village that was saved from the inferno in the nick of time, said his community needed a dedicated fire station.
“And we want help to replace our farming equipment, otherwise our crops will be gone,” he said.
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