ATHENS – Part of plans to deal with wildfires if they break out again this summer – after the devastation wrought in 2021 in Greece – is to use the military to patrol areas where they often occur to chase down arsonists.

Greece frequently is beset with summer wildfires and until the New Democracy government passed a decree there was no prohibition on building on burned land which then saw development.

The government admitted shortcomings in the response to last year’s fires and is trying to ready if they happen again with plans also including more aerial surveillance and greater use of firefighting planes, said Kathimerini.

Greek soldiers will be on patrol in high-risk areas including the largest prefecture of Attica around the capital and the island of Evia, the country’s second-largest, nearly half of which was consumed by flames in 2021.