According to the Fire Department in Greece, Friday 17/7 from 6 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, 58 fires were lit in rural and forest areas in Greece.

This situation is not new. The Mediterranean landscape with summer drought and frequently strong winds is ideal for the rapid expansion of fire. In addition, the pine forests in Greece contain a flammable juice called "retsini" – known to many for the famous wine "retsina" in which it is used as a preservative.

The re-birth time of burning forests is 20-50 years depending on the type of plant.

However, if in the meantime another fire is lit, it is probable that the forest will not be reborn.

In Greece, every summer, there are fires, culminating in the fires of 2007, in which many of the great remaining forests in Greece, including the National Park of Parnitha, the mountain Taygetos, mount Parnon, South Evia, Olympia, Messinia (next to my hometown), etc., were sadly burned.

The solution is always the country's having essential equipment for extinguishing, particularly firefighting planes and helicopters and a large Fire Brigade which is enforced during the summer by temporary staff for immediate intervention in places where there is a fire.

I believe that the focus should be mainly preventive and not after the fire has been set. 

The tremendous growth of real estate in the mountainous and forested areas has brought people nearly everywhere in nature. A small mistake or carelessness during the dangerous summer months is enough to destroy the forest.

For instance, the last fire on mount Hymettus, near Athens has as main suspects two beekeepers who wanted to burn dry grass in an area thinking that would control the small fire they lighted.

In my home town, in Messinia, in 2007, the fire that burned tens of thousands of acres of forest and farmland, started from an electric welding in a rural establishment.

Note that in Greece, every year, from May the 1st , any fire is prohibited in a farmland or agricultural area.

Unfortunately, the ease of human development, without any zones in which human intervention is forbidden, seems to lead to the destruction of the last forests in the country, but also across Mediterranean Europe.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that many of these fires are cases of arson. People think it is easier to build on a burned forest, rather than in a living one. Unfortunately, this has been confirmed repeatedly?

Even in this difficult situation, I would like to praise the action of thousands of volunteers throughout Greece that have build outposts on hills, forests and mountains to report any fires in time, before they have the chance to reach a size hard to control.