Under pressure to cope with the impact of rising temperatures, Greece's emergency response planners are shifting tactics this summer.
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, take part in a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius in late March.
Mostly funded by the European Union, Greece has launched a 2.1 billion euro program to overhaul its disaster response capability, ordering new water-dropping aircraft, drones, fire trucks, training facilities, and an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect early signs of smoke and flooding.
Windy and mountainous with hard-to-reach islands, Greece faces a daunting annual challenge in defending multiple urban settlements that overlap with wooded areas at wildfire risk. Throughout the month of April, firefighters stepped up exercises and training, using new facilities like the Fire Dragon, a 1.2 million euro trailer used to simulate the inside of a burning building. Fire crews with heavy protective gear and oxygen tanks use it to practice close-quarter techniques and rescues.
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Greece boosts special firefighting units to cope with its growing heat riskUnder pressure to cope with the impact of rising temperatures, Greece's emergency response planners are shifting tactics this summer
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Greece boosts special firefighting units to cope with its growing heat riskUnder pressure to cope with the impact of rising temperatures, Greece's emergency response planners are shifting tactics this summer. They'll be relying more heavily on specialized units to fight wildfires.
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Greece boosts special firefighting units to cope with its growing heat riskUnder pressure to cope with the impact of rising temperatures, Greece's emergency response planners are shifting tactics this summer.
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