Wildfire Incursion into Athens Highlights Chronic State Failures

For yet another consecutive summer Greece finds itself well into the fire season as flames and dark smoke have engulfed Athens. While summer blazes are nothing new for the Mediterranean country, the threat posed to Athens by a stream of fire that originated in the nearby town of Varnavas has been unprecedented..Strong winds and the chronic institutional malaise that has for decades plagued the Greek state and public services allowed for the fire to spread over a distance of about 35km (21.7 miles) burning some 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) by Monday. The flames reportedly reached 25 meters (80ft) high as they neared the Greek capital while the temperature stood at 40C (104F)..Over 100 homes have been reportedly lost in the flames as the "river of fire" extended eastwards across the Attica countryside of Marathon, Nea Makri, and up to the metropolitan suburbs of Penteli, Vrilissia and Chalandri where a woman in her 60s was found dead in a burned factory on Tuesday morning..Hundreds of residents have been forced to evacuate as the capital's Olympic Stadium has opened its gates to welcome about 150 affected residents..How It Began: .The fire in Varnavas began in late midday on Sunday, August 11, as aerial and ground firefighting units had been battling another hot spot near the town of Megara in Attica. While its causes have not yet been established, preliminary reports suggest that sparks from a short circuit in the electrical infrastructure in the area might have lit the fire. Due to permissive dry heat, strong winds quickly grew and spread out exponentially. While other witness accounts suggest arson may have been responsible, in either case, the Greek state's meager capacity for prevention and failure to halt the fiery carnage before it overcame Mount Penteli and reached residential areas underscores organizational and operational failures in devising successful firebreak strategies..Compounding Failures:.Apparent shortcomings are further compounded by chronic denialism of political responsibility for previous disasters, such as the 2007 blazes in the Peloponnese, the 2018 fire at the coastal Mati area and the 2023 train collision at the Tempi Valley in Thessaly..Successive governments led by the social-democratic PASOK, the center-right New Democracy, and the leftist SYRIZA parties have evidently prioritized superficial management of political communication and reputation damage control at the expense of structural change. The release of information on the discovery of burned bodies at Mati was delayed in an attempt to temporarily conceal the true scale of the disaster that claimed the lives of 104 people. Credible accusations of a cover-up have similarly been levied against the incumbent center-right government following a deadly head-on train collision in February 2023 that resulted in the tragic death of 57 passengers, as families allege profoundly negligent, if not intentional, forensic mishandling of the accident scene..This prior history of deadly failures and the Greek state's proven scleroticism to much-needed institutional and infrastructural overhaul and reform of its crumbling civil protection apparatus, suggests that chances are slim that this summer's fires will serve as a grave wake-up call to decision-makers in Athens..Nevertheless, this week's fiery incursion that threatened to engulf the capital's northeastern suburbs has elevated the issue to a severe security threat to the Greek state in the most unequivocal manner to date. The government's inability to protect the capital will raise additional concerns if arson is ultimately identified as the precipitating cause of this disaster, highlighting a dangerous absence of pre-emption and prevention of sabotage from individual or (non-)state malign actors..And while the country's firefighting corpse boasted an impressive deployment of about 670 firefighters, more than 180 vehicles and more than 30 planes, one cannot overlook concerns over operational efficiency and planning that determine the strategic prioritisation and allocation of resources and capabilities in battling the flames..A 2023 report by the International Association of Wildfires identified the Greek firefighting's doctrinal emphasis on the "evacuation and protection of settlements" over extinguishing smaller fires that seemingly do not pose an immediate grave threat. Allowing these fires to grow due to an unbalanced distribution of firefighting resources results in a multi-frontal battle against ever-growing wildfires that ultimately threaten towns, cities and even military installations..The report concludes that in the absence of doctrinal changes in Greek firefighting strategy, the Greek government's deflection of political and operational responsibilities to the scapegoat of "climate change" suggests that no lessons have been learned..Indeed as the latest catastrophe in Athens suggests, material capabilities and the remarkable human effort showcased by professionals and volunteers must be met with equally competent policies and strategic planning to yield decisive results..Failure in this alignment of objectives with finite means has for too long allowed for unsustainable rates of environmental, economic and humanitarian destruction every Greek summer..While the fires ravaging Attica have largely waned down, fire hazard forecasts across the country suggest the fight might not be over just yet.