No pay, all courage

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.

“I’m a businessman,” 54-year-old Marinelis, who runs a construction company, said at the volunteer team’s base in the leafy upscale Athens suburb of Ekali.

“Then when the phone rings, when you have a shift ... you stop thinking about yourself and you start thinking about ­others,” he said.

As climate change makes Greece hotter, drier and more vulnerable to wildfires, the government has said it will deploy a record 18,000 firefighters this year, up from around 15,500 in 2022, plus around 10,000 volunteers.

It has also earmarked some €2bil (RM9.65bil) to buy new aircraft and will use nearly twice as many thermal camera drones that seek out fires as last year, one of which will be used by the Ekali team.

“Unfortunately, we’re waiting for the worst and hoping for the best,” Marinelis said.

Greece’s fire service is a mixed model of permanent staff and seasonal workers, and has long been backed by volunteers, viewed by many Greeks as the heart of the country’s firefighting efforts.

Images of exhausted firefighters in blackened uniforms sleeping on the roadside are frequently posted online alongside messages of support.

It is not always easy to keep the organisations going.

Ekali team leader George Dertilis said his 60-member team depends on donations for equipment and trucks – one of which dates back to 1986.

Some of their uniforms have been donated by colleagues in France and Belgium.

“There are times we lack basic supplies like hoses,” he said.

Volunteer Forest Firefighters Rescue Team member Panagiotis Mastoris, 38, checking a hose during a patrol in Ekali, northern Athens. — Reuters

In 2021, just two weeks before a massive fire burned outside Athens, Dertilis said they could not afford to insure all four trucks until private donors stepped in.

Then, the fire destroyed their hoses and they searched for donations while flames still burned.

Over the years, the team members have bonded like brothers and sisters, but usually it is the thought of their own families that reminds them not to take unnecessary risks.

Marinelis’ wife Mariana Pilou, an architect, is also a volunteer on the team.

They have two young daughters and try to avoid deploying to the same blaze.

Pilou, 53, recalled one recent incident: “It was a difficult situation and the moment I had to run I thought of my kids and I said ... don’t act like a hero.” — Reuters