Location Penteli, Greece
Disaster Attica Wildfires, 2024
Panagiotis, a student and volunteer firefighter, ended up defending his own home when a wildfire broke out in the summer. The Attica wildfires killed one person and burned more than 8,000 hectares of forest and land, including many homes. Dozens of people were hospitalised due to smoke inhalation.
I really like to go on long walks on the mountain – we have beautiful paths with waterfalls. It’s really picturesque up at Penteli – or, at least, it was really picturesque.
When the fire started at Varnavas, I had a good sense of the direction it would take and the possible extent of the damage due to the wind that was blowing at the time. I was part of the [firefighting] group responsible for defending the hilltop over the populated area of Penteli. Unfortunately, soon enough, the fire had approached and actually overtook us, moving to the very dangerous parts.
I actually had to fight the flames from burning down my house. I saved the building for the most part; it suffered only partial damage to the shell, though the yard was totally destroyed. But the shock of the imminent threat of losing your house is tremendous, and watching the despair in the eyes of my neighbours, who had just lost their home, is devastating. I think the most common emotions are terror and stress. I wish such luck on nobody.
Even though we were lucky enough to have saved our house, we still had to evacuate the area for several days, so that was tough. The situation was really difficult, very challenging. The terror and the stress we felt is not going to disappear.
The fire not only burned over 100,000 acres of forest, but also destroyed a lot of houses in my area. In the last few years, the temperatures have increased due to climate change. We know we will face difficult fires, and they’re getting more difficult every year.
In the last 10 years, about 70% of the forest area within Attica has been buried. That is extremely worrisome for our quality of life in the years to come, as global warming is affecting the climate and cultivating conditions for a greater, more rapid fire breakout. We have to do everything we can to counteract this, for example by establishing fire zones or passing power cables underground. I just hope that this comes soon, before more damage is done.
The one great outcome is that the community has come together to support those families without homes. It is nice to see everyone you know come together and see that humanity still lives strong within us.
This interview was facilitated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Design and development by Harry Fischer and Pip Lev
