A firefighting helicopter doing a water drop as a wildfire burns near the village of Helidori, near Corinth, Greece, on Sept 30, 2024. — Reuters
IN the summer of 2023, Dimitris Marinelis spent days on the frontline of Europe’s biggest wildfire in northern Greece, protecting homes and setting up anti-fire zones as flames engulfed a forest.
Like the others on his team, Marinelis has not been paid a cent for his work – he is among thousands of volunteer men and women firefighters who juggle day jobs with battling Greece’s devastating summer blazes, sometimes dropping everything to go wherever they are needed.
