TO STOP WILDFIRES, RESIDENTS IN SOME GREEK SUBURBS PUT THEIR OWN MONEY TOWARD EARLY WARNING DRONES

The nightmare repeats itself every year: A towering wall of flames devours forests, farmland and homes, forcing animals and people to flee for their lives.

With their hot, dry summers, Greece and its southern European neighbors experience hundreds of devastating wildfires each year. Last week alone, wildfires killed 21 people in Greece. The country’s deadliest, in 2018, cost more than 100 lives. And experts warn that climate change is likely to exacerbate extreme weather, fueling more wildfires.

This summer, a group of residents in a leafy suburb of the Greek capital united in determination to prevent the nightmare from reaching their homes.

In less than a week in early August, an initial group of three people with a shared concern grew to an online community of about 320 offering donations to hire a company using long-range drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras as a sophisticated early warning system to catch wildfires before they can spread.

“We’re all worried, we’re all anxious,” said Melina Throuvala, a psychologist and one of the three residents who started the project for drone patrols in the northern Athens suburbs of Kifissia, Ekali and Nea Erithrea. “We don’t want to mourn victims, or to see our environment and our forests burning or our homes threatened. That was the main incentive.”

And with wildfires, prevention is key.

Operated by drone pilots with advanced training to fly beyond the visual line of sight and with permission from civil aviation authorities, the drones provide live images and detect changes in temperature, alerting their handlers in the critical early stages before a fire spreads. The drones run 24/7, with pilots working in six-hour shifts.

“The first few minutes are the most crucial for a fire,” said Giorgos Dertilis, who heads the local volunteer firefighting unit. “At the start it’s easier to put out the fire. The more the minutes go by, the harder our job becomes.”