EIGHT square kilometres of carob trees, olive trees, dry grass and wild vegetation were destroyed after two fires broke out over the weekend between the villages of Anogyra and Ayios Thoma in Limassol.
The fires, which also threatened houses and needed the deployment of five fire fighting helicopters, started from a landfill site in Anogyra. Locals suspect the blazes might have been caused by hunters who had camped in the area a few days ago.
Fire Service Spokeswoman Lisa Kemidji said yesterday that a small fire broke out on Friday around 9pm between Anogyra and Ayios Thomas, while on Saturday a larger fire in the same area threatened houses.
Friday’s fire was only brought under control by the Fire Service around 4am on Sunday. Meanwhile fire fighters had to battle for two consecutive nights to put out Saturday’s blaze, which was particularly intense.
“Houses were threatened around 9.35pm on Saturday,” said Kemidji, adding that currently the villages were safe thanks to the decisive intervention of the fire services.
The task was made extremely difficult, mainly due to the inaccessibility of the area and because of strong winds. Moreover, the fires broke out at night and darkness prevented the use of helicopters and airplanes for several hours.
The two big fire fronts were burning everything down throughout the night, with the most dangerous one in southeast Anogyra heading uncontrollably towards the village of Prastio. Around 11pm the main fronts subsided as the strong winds blowing throughout the day had stopped.
More than 20 vehicles remained in the area yesterday to completely put out the fires and prevent any fires reigniting. Kemidji said the Fire Service, Civil Defence, the Special Unit Dealing with Catastrophes (EMAK), Game Fund, Forestry Department and District Administration Offices had all worked to bring the fires under control and were still working in the area. Two helicopters of the Republic, one police helicopter and two Forestry Department planes were used in the fire fighting operation.
Anogyra community leader Loucas Makris yesterday told CyBC he suspected the fires were caused by hunters camping in the area, although the exact causes are not yet known. Referring to the landfill site where the fires started, he said that as far as he knew it had been officially closed since 2002.
Commenting on the matter, Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis said that the unchecked landfill site should have been closed years ago. He also emphasised that it was the responsibility of district councils and all Cypriot citizens to avoid such catastrophes and called on the public to be extremely careful. The minister added that although the particular area of the catastrophe was not sufficiently protected, fire-restricted zones did exist around several other landfill sites.
“Plans to promote recycling started a few years ago. Forty Green Points have been created in the last two years and citizens should use them to recycle different materials [instead of dumping their garbage in landfill sites],” Sylikiotis said.
Meanwhile a Green Party announcement called for stricter implementation of the law. The party also said that the ‘Green Points’ programme had been unsuccessful, while several landfill sites, that should have been closed, still operated illegally.
