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VOLUNTEERS AND FIREFIGHTERS were working relentlessly in a desperate bid to stop a violent blaze from reaching a key town on Greece’s Evia island.
The inferno is one of hundreds of fires that have raged through the country.
Nearly 900 firefighters, reinforced with fresh arrivals from abroad, were deployed on the country’s second largest island as major towns and resorts remained under threat on from a blaze burning for eight days.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a package of 500 million euros ($586 million) in emergency help to those affected by what he has dubbed a “natural fury without precedent”, as well as for reconstruction of devastated areas.
Weather disasters bulked up by climate change have swept the globe this summer, with a landmark UN assessment published Monday warning the world is warming even faster than forecast.
Hundreds of homes have been lost in Evia, greater Athens, the Peloponnese and other parts of Greece to wildfires since late July, as the region suffers through an intense heatwave.
Underscoring the violent swings of fortune tormenting Greece, fires in the Peloponnese flared anew just an hour after officials said the situation was stabilising.
Residents in 20 small villages in the region of Gortynia were warned to evacuate on Tuesday, with the mayor saying conditions seemed out of control again.
“In the blink of an eye, all control was lost,” mayor Efstathios Soulis told state TV ERT, adding that dozens of villages, agricultural units and businesses were at risk.
The flames have claimed three lives in Greece, while in neighbouring Turkey eight have been killed eight. Several people have been injured, some critically.
Sixteen people have been arrested on suspicion of arson or negligent arson, the police said.
‘Where we go?’
Much of the attention was focused today on keeping the fire out of Evia’s northern hub of Istiaia, which has 7,000 residents who had yet to evacuate.
Firefighters and volunteers had been engaged overnight in “hand-to-hand combat, fighting heart and soul” to erect fire breaks outside villages neighbouring Istiaia, mayor Yiannis Kontzias said.
Locals, often in just t-shirts, battled the flames on several fronts, one of which raged out of control.
The Evia force includes hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. They were reinforced today with units from Cyprus, Slovakia and Poland, the civil protection authority said.
The rugged island is popular with holidaymakers and many Greeks have summer homes on Evia. Some 3,000 people were evacuated by sea this past week as the flames neared.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of Asiminio, a coastal village near Istiaia also threatened by flames.
“Where do you want us to go?,” a woman in her sixties shouted, refusing to leave as helicopters flew ahead.
On the streets, dozens of residents pointed angrily at a Slovakian firefighting truck. “Look, they’re doing all the work. Where are ours? We beg them to come and no one comes,” said Dimitri.
In Avgaria village, many people turned out to help the professionals.
“If we don’t come, who will?” asked Yiannis, a burly man in his 20s. “My aunt’s house burnt down, that of my grandfather almost did too.”
The fire has also wrought havoc on the island’s agricultural economy that included olives, figs and honey, leaving many producers despondent.
Istiaia Mayor Kontzias said “mistakes were made and we need to draw lessons from this”.
“The Greek state must never forget what happened in northern Evia,” he added. “Helicopters helped a lot and if we had done that since the beginning, we would have avoided all this destruction.”
He was echoing a complaint widely heard about the lack of air support not just on Evia but throughout Greece.
Many mayors around the country have complained of a serious lack of aerial support in fighting the fires, despite government assurances of having set aside ample resources.
‘Dagger to the heart’
“Every lost home is a tragedy, a dagger to the heart,” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said today, his voice breaking.
In a televised address on Monday, Mitsotakis apologised “for any shortcomings” in the state response.
“We may have done what was humanly possible, but in many cases it was not enough.”
EU states and other countries have so far contributed 21 aircraft, 250 vehicles and more than 1,200 firefighters, some of whom were due to arrive by Friday.
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Genuine question for those who voted for it: why did you want to keep the Seanad?
@Sean Murphy: The problem was with the question, people hoped for reform of the senate, not the abolition of the senate. Also there is a certain % of voters that will always vote against the government regardless of what’s put to the people. I also think people like Norris and wanted to keep him in the senate and so voted no.
@Sean Murphy: in order to maintain a bicameral legislature.
As the other commentator pointed out, I believe many wanted serious reform.
If the Seanad was abolished the executive (government) may have gotten even more control.
@Sean Murphy: the seanad was kept for one reason and that is because everything that’s passes in the dail in legislation has to pass through the seanad it stops the dail from passing their legislation basically it’s a second opinion and that’s how it should work but we all know it doesn’t work like that.the seanad should be made up of unelected citizens not politicians.the seanad was supposed to be reformed according to ends Kenny but never happened surprise surprise.. kept the votes coming and the pay increases wink wink…!!!
@Robert Phelan: Because we wanted to keep checks and balances in place but in a reformed Seanad with more democratic representation through open, free and fair elections.
@Sean Murphy: because people were niave into thinking the government would reform it. Had the wool pulled over their eyes. We should just get rid of it like they did in Australia.
@Sean Murphy: Because Kenny wanted it gone.It was a loaded choice we were offered at the time.Ask us again.
@Robert Phelan: it should be made up of unelected citizens? Really, how is that going to work? Hardly a democratic body, all be it not fully democratic at present, if its unelected?
@Sean Murphy: I want Seanad reform, not abolition. I want a version of the Citizens Assembly to suggest laws and to approve laws made by the Dail. I want the existing structure which is simply a parking lot for failed politicians to be torn down and replaced. The vision for the Seanad was an apolitical assembly of conservatives who would rein in the worst excesses of enthusiastic populists.
Few years ago a failed Labour politician who was given a senate seat wrote on Oirecthas paper/envelopes to every voter in the estate I live in she was delighted through her help the roads in our estate were being finished after the builders went bust, to our knowledge she did nothing it was a Sinn Féin councilor who did all the work to get this done, the management company wrote to her asking her exactly what did she do, an incredible and dishonest waste of money.
@Brianán McBride: It’s a funny thing about Labour politicians , I saw Brendan Howlin and Joan Burton outside the Dail supporting the hospital workers on the news and I thought,how the hell have they the neck when they voted to cut all workers wages when in government, brass neck or what…
@Honeybee: Joan Burton had the audacity as the Minister for Social Protection to stand for a photo op as she cut the ribbon at the opening of a food bank which was required as a result of the austerity laid down by her government of Fine Gael and Labour, and Fianna Fáil before them… Pure sick and twisted.
@ObsidianShine: It follows the same ideology of her political mate Pat Rabbitte , you will recall his famous speech about telling the electorate lies
Pat Rabbitte: a man who couldn’t fill his own shoes – Independent.ie
https://www.independent.ie/…/pat-rabbitte-a-man-who-couldnt-fill-his-own-shoes-313.
@Honeybee: He was good at talking through his burrow to be fair Honeybee.
@Honeybee: link down…
@Declan Edward: That’s so strange,why I wonder did the Journal take down the link, it is not as though it was not true and can easily be googled by anyone with an interest.
@Honeybee: But they asked us to take down our adblocker.
@Brianán McBride: around the last local election time we had 5 flyers from three different parties all claiming that they personally were responsible for the maintenance and setup of a new park in our area despite the fact it was being set up by the county council office of public works… It’s the exact same way that ffg are claiming any and all responsibility for any improvement or upturn in the economy and jobs market (as negligible and artificial is that is) thanks to their wonderful “head in the sand” management
Genuine query.
How can the cost of secretarial assistance to TDs be higher than the salaries of those TDs?
@KeenOnKeem: Because there is obviously more assistants than TDs
@KeenOnKeem: I had the same thought. Clearly there must be multiple upon multiple secretarial assistants to each individual TD to account for that bill. Of course they would all be needed and do vital work in helping those TDs run our country and it’s definitely not a case of TDs giving jobs to family members and friends even though there isn’t the need for them to have so many secretarial assistants
@León O’Keeffe: there are loads of admin staff who do things in the Oireachtas that have nothing to do with any specific TD or senator. This is why the secretarial bill appears high. These people are needed as otherwise there would be nobody answering the phone when people call Leinster House in general or nobody ordering stationary for the whole parliament or nobody making sure that debates in committees and the Dail and Seanad are minuted and typed up and there would be nobody ordering the grass be cut or the cleaners given supplies etc etc etc
@Bernard Cantillon: plus they also have a secretary in the Dail office and one in the Constituency office. There is money included for the cost of having a constituency office.
FFG truly laughing at the people..
@Willy: do the rest of the TDs work for free? Good on them!!
Good money for half the year off and a 3 day week good times are well and truly back.
How could anyone not see an additional €8m spend on office equipment and IT services coming, especially when this represents an overspend of 50% of budget?
@GrumpyAulFella: That would be the “Digital Transformation” project. Replacing loads of perfectly fit for purpose systems for no real reason.
The headline is not the 19 million salary. They get the majority of their money from everything else. The total oireachtas cost was 134 million. Total cost of funding the tds was 43 million, over double their salary. 22 million on office equipment and it services. Total costs was 19% more than 2017. So 4.5% my backside, it was 19%, they just used other ways than salary to pay themselves more.
Its not a 4.5% increase, its a 19% increase. Their salary just increased by 4.5% so they could make their argument to prevent the rest of the public sector workers from getting any pay rises according to their public sector pay agreement.
We must be Gobshxxx to fund these Wasters and their extented Families, at least close the Dail Bar.
The only way to ensure performance related accountability re Governments would be to pay Government TDs a much lower basic salary but with potential for performance related bonuses for adequately tackling their various Departments & ensuring no crisis or emergencies develop,etc!
Money for Jam
I wonder what it would actually take for us as a nation to say…’enough is enough’
‘Use your vote!’….’we’ll get them in the elections’
How many times have you heard this!!!????
We doomed as a herd of servile sheep in the wild west of europe!
Wouldn’t mind an extra 4.5% myself.
Can I bid on the contract for the recovery arrangement?
What a bloody disgrace considering the average take home pay in this country, still the sheep deserve what they get considering they vote FFG.
@Charles Coughlan: cost of living going up.. Minimum pricing on alcholol soon to come in… Tds getting pay increases, yet the majority of people in the country are on minimum wage.. How can things keep going up in price yet wages and salary aren’t reflected in the same way?
@Chonky Racoon: The system is designed that way. They want the majority of people in this kip to be on barely enough to live on. The people are seen as cash cows who are not entitled to have a decent quality of life. Just work, pay taxes to keep them in their lifestyles and shut up. It is as simple as that.
@Charles Coughlan: if you factor in the hours most TDs work, the take home pay hour isnt that high; also many professional occupations pay higher salaries for a fraction of the hassle and hours
@Stephen Kearon: Compare the output of both groups you mention and tell me if we are getting value for money Stephen.
@Chonky Racoon: “majority of people are on minimum wage”? What utter nonsense, the factual position is that just 7.6% are on minimum wage, see https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/cso-more-than-137000-earn-the-minimum-wage-920323.html
@Stephen Kearon: How do you know how many hours they actually work,being present in the Dail or claiming hours is not proof of work, judging by the expensive televised proceedings listed above,the Dail chamber is fairly empty at the best of times,perhaps they are ‘working out’ in the Dail gym or Dail bar or whatever. In any event their claims for expenses outway their salaries , and judging their staff payments then the burden of work is on others, what hassles do you think they endure being wined, dined and accommodated at the taxpayers expense?not to mention the extended holidays and short Dail terms. If it was so trying then why would intergenerational political families try their darndest to get elected, I think we all have a fair idea as to the answer to that.
@Stephen Kearon: Go away out of that, professional workers actually earn their money. Attending this funeral, that funeral, this opening, that opening, holding constituency clinics once a week and stepping in and out of the Dáil chamber or the Seanad is not what I’d consider value for money, they’re not getting things right, and very rarely do… They’re not worth the salaries they get… Professionals are.
@Honeybee: what a load of populist bull, I’ve personal experience of the hours TDs work, its probably double or more the standard 40 hour week; equating non Dail sitting days with holidays is nonsense; expenses aren’t income, should be all vouched and published. Try going to your local TDs clinic to observe and also ask them what they did for each of the last 7 days, the facts many surprise you
@Stephen Kearon: Don’t ride the wave Stephen, I too have experienced and dismissing what is true does not make it less so. You are entitled to cheer lead as you choose ,that is for you but if government worked efficiently and accordingly then there would be no need for ‘clinics’, for citizens to obtain services which they are rightly entitled to but which they are often left to grovel for in desperation. I spent today ensuring a woman of 90 years of age qualified for an entitlement which was refused to her by a government incompetent, it makes me sick to think what people endure at the hands of our TD’s,no applause from me.
@Stephen Kearon: They voted to keep their expenses secret. Some TD’s do all they can to maximise their expenses. It is income. You’re a supporter of the FF part of the undemocratic cabal ruling the country. They certainly do not govern. And the cabal is not worth one cent of the money they get.
@Stephen Kearon: had to laugh at francis fitz and mcentee when they were out canvassing before the recent elections, interviewed and there was some survey out at the time, so they were asked how much sleep they get. And they both answered as proud as punch and as alert as ever, “oh, i got about 4 hours last night, i’d say the same the night before, and same before that, yea we work so hard, we don’t get any sleep”!
@Stephen Kearon: With all of your personal experience as a Fianna Fáil insider could you tell us how many hours a week TD’s work on actual legislation?
The Guillotine ??????
@M Stuart: With their necks .. It wouldn’t work.
S cumbags
€135 million to run the houses of the Oireachtas proves we have to many politicians ( for a small country ) and they have no respect on what they get or spend.
Its not right
Well earned!!!
Yes Alan and a lot of it goes on people who do not get paid enough in regard to the cost of living. There are hundreds of thousands of people working now who qualify for FIS. In regards to the homeless and health system the govt are doing f- all so what’s your point?
Get rid of the Dail, and just use the Senate. Far cheaper and a lot less hot air
Before the dramatics begin about the homeless and the health system it’s worth noting we spend 20 billion a year on welfare in this country. Salaries have to be paid!
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