Can you believe this!
They burnt our village,
they left us with no water,
no electricity.
In recent weeks, a record heatwave sparked wildfires across Greece.
Over 500 fires raged across the country.
The largest and most damaging was on the island of Evia.
The government focuses resources on putting out fires
close to the Greek capital.
We tried for eight days to put out the fire.
We begged, we pleaded, we cursed
the people in charge, asking them to send [firefighting] aircraft.
The residents of Evia were told to evacuate.
If it doesn’t stop we are going to burn alive.
Many fled.
Nothing, you won’t pay anything [for the ferry].
Some defied the order,
staying behind to protect their villages.
The police came at 11 o’clock
and rang the church bells and said, ‘you should evacuate.’
Where do you want me to go!
We fought until the morning.
While Athens was saved, Evia burned,
and half a million acres went up in smoke.
And much of the island’s forest and agricultural areas are now gone.
No politician will be able to come to the area.
It will be dangerous for them.
I warn them not to come.
People are angry.
You left us.
If I had them [political leaders] in front of me,
with all honesty,
I could hang them from that tree.
So they would understand what they’ve done,
and I’d leave them hanging there...
I’m not kidding.
With the fire season still in full swing,
2021 will be remembered in Greece
as the summer of fire and anger.
[The Summer of Fire and Anger]
Hey fire!
Stay calm! Stay calm!
After seven days of destruction, the residents of Evia
and volunteers from all over Greece are still putting out fires.
Steady! Steady!
Take it easy!
Make sure the hose doesn’t bend.
On the morning of the second day,
when the fires started spreading,
over 500 firefighters were on the ground in Athens,
but only 95 were in Evia.
The prime minister was accused of mismanaging the emergency.
I apologize
for any weaknesses that may have occurred,
I sympathize with the pain of our citizens.
Volunteer firefighters took matters into their own hands.
No political parties here.
Completely autonomous.
You can find people from all walks of life.
There is a job to be done here.
Political parties, associations and things like that
are all bullshit.
More Slack! More Slack!
Today is the seventh day that Evia Island is burning
Only the last few days, we saw some airplanes and some helicopters.
People have lost their homes, their businesses, agriculture.
Any kind of business around here has been destroyed,
I think for at least a generation.
We are on the fire front,
providing water and supplies to the people that are here fighting.
The situation looks better, but how better
after one third of the whole island of Evia has been burnt?
Your living room?
Yeah, my... my living room, yes.
And this is my helmet.
The Kourellou sisters lost their farm and animal shelter in the fire.
They’re not yet sure if they will rebuild.
We had eight horses, two donkeys, and thirteen dogs.
And I made a phone call to someone from the state of Agia Anna,
and he told me, “Take the horses and run.”
Of course, I am angry.
Not only for the government or the the way the government thinks
and the fire place,
but also for us as individuals.
OK, I recycle, so what?
Now everything is burned.
The whole game has to change.
Maybe this is the start of the end.
Despite the scale of the disaster, Prime Minister Mitsotakis
didn’t visit the region during the crisis,
fearing a political backlash from local residents.
Where are they?
If I were in their position I would kill myself.
The deputy mayor of Evia
coordinated the under-resourced response.
Let’s first assist the people that have lost the most.
George, he told us he has 30 sheep.
I received a phone call
from a resident of a village
of our Municipality.
That a small fire had started
next to his village.
Within half an hour I was there.
By the time I arrived, the fire had spread.
The absurdity is that
400 meters from where the fire started,
there is a space for a fire truck,
I don’t know why but it wasn’t there.
We lost 70% of the chances
of putting out the fire at that moment.
His office coordinated emergency supplies for the villages
and made sure evacuees had accommodation.
The fire department was late in reacting.
They were just standing there without attempting to put out the fire.
When we asked them “why aren’t you using water”
they told us, “we are waiting for orders.”
I don’t believe the firemen are to blame.
I think it was mismanagement.
Although the deputy mayor voted for the current government,
he warned the prime minister not to visit the island.
If I had the Prime Minister in front of me
I would ask him...
who is responsible for this disaster?
Someone is in charge.
Someone is at fault.
Our citizens come here and say
“I do not want food aid.
I want my life back.
I want to go to work, to sweat,
to go to my forest,
to my olives,
to eat bread with my dirty hands and to savour it.”
This road that we are on now,
I drive on it everyday.
And from the first time I saw it [after the disaster[
until now, it causes me sorrow
and anger.
They destroyed something beautiful
and it will take along time for it to recover.
Very long.
Athens [surrounding area] will recover
because it is a more affluent area.
But here, where it’s not as affluent
and everyone is living day by day,
it won’t be as easy.
The fire reached this point because of the dry grass
it burnt the olive trees
and continued up the mountain.
All the way up.
No police, no fire trucks.
There was no one.
When I say no one, I mean no one.
And still no one has come.
Five days later and no fire truck has passed.
So,
what kind of government are we talking about,
what fire department?
They wanted us to burn and they left us to burn.
Following these fires,
the amount of land burned in Greece this year
has already surpassed that in 2020 by 50%.
You could only see this orange, orange color,
a layer of flames and smoke.
That close to the capital, that really felt apocalyptic.
We’re witnessing a part of our history
where people are displaced due to a climate catastrophe.
In 1998, regional fire services
were brought under the control of the fire authorities in Athens.
Vasillos Ioakimidis, an expert in post-disaster management,
believes local firefighting knowledge was lost in the process.
We have these mammoth Russian airplanes,
but in reality, there’s no substance.
They created a service that cannot respond in wildfires
because they don’t know the landscape
and they don’t know the communities.
And there is an example coming to our attention
where seasonal firefighters were prevented from operating
because they exceeded the limit of hours
they were supposed to be working.
And they wanted to be there and do the work.
There is a limit that they cannot exceed,
and that’s not for safety purposes.
That’s for money-saving purposes.
Local villagers were each trying to save
their own home or help save their neighbour’s house.
Eighty-nine-year-old local Kostas Konstantinou
defied orders to evacuate in order to save his home.
I used the neighbor’s hose
and my son was up on the roof.
In the end
I thought of falling into the fire
to also burn if my house went up in flames.
Last year that the Amazon was burned was the first step.
And now Siberia is burned.
They’re all related.
And we don’t do anything.
We don’t demand anything.
Maybe this is how the game...
is ending.