More firefighters are to be hired

Almost 7,000 firefighters are to be hired in the next few weeks

Some 5,500 seasonal firefighters will be hired on April 1 along with some 1,200 full-time firemen as Greece beefs up its fire defenses ahead of the summer.

Deputy Interior Minister Panayiotis Hinofotis informed a parliamentary committee yesterday about the hirings as he blamed the fire service’s poor performance during the wildfires last summer on a lack of coordination. “What was to blame last summer was a lack of coordination and the interventions by local officials that stemmed from ignorance or panic,” he said.

Advertisement