Parnithas Fire

                                                        Fire in progress at Parnitha Mount , outskirts of Athens, Greece , on the night of 28 June 2007. Photo taken from 16km away . Author : George Havlicek . File : Parnitha Fire . jpg Creative Commons . _________________________________________________________________________________Mount Parnitha (modern Greek : Πάρνηθα / Parnitha .   (ancient and medieval inclination :  η Πάρνης , της Πάρνηθος / Parnis, Parnithos  . Is a  densely forested mountain range northwest of Athens , the highest on the peninsula of Attika .

Forests of  Aleppo Pine  cover the slopes ,above 1.000 m.  it is covered  principally in Greek Fir and  more than a thousant species of plants (white peony ,red lily, red tulip ,  crocus ,  orchid, bluebell...)  provides a native habital to  red deer ,fox,mink ,squirrel,hare, hedgehog ,marten, owl,halkyon, hoopoe,nightingale,blackbird, coral, goldfinch, eagle , wildlife , cuckoo , mediterranian  turtle, greek tutle , viper  and other species . Much of the  mountain is designated a national park  and is protected habitat for wildfowl . It was a wonderful place destroyed from  a wildfire on Thursday, June 28 , 2007 around night and noon hours  continuing  for several days and burning approximately 56 km₂ of land, the fire claimed an 80% proportion of the rare Greek Fir and Aleppo Pine forest and rare plant species , hundreds animals of the red deer population , thousands birds and other rare animals.   _________________________________________________________________________________The  2007 Greek forest fires  were  a series of massive forest fires that broke out in several areas across Greece  throughout the summer of 2007.  From the end of June to early September over 3.000 forest fires were recorded across the nation .The fires mainly affected Attica historical  region that encopasses the city of Athens the mountains of Parnitha, Pentelikon, Hymmetos ,valleys and plains to the sea ,  southern Euboea the second largest Greek island  in area wich extends parallel to Attica and Boeotia , western and southern Peloponesse , Elis , Arcadia and Laconia and  part of ancient Olympia site of the ancient Olympics and World Heritage Site  . In total 84 people died , 2.800  square kilometers of forest , olive groves and farmland , were destroyed in the fires . The fire destroyed 1000 houses and 1100 other buildings and damaged hundreds more . Some of these firestorms are believed to be the result of arson while others were merely the result of negligence .   _________________________________________________________________________________Some officers of the  fire brigate talked about asymmetric threats  behind the burning of national forests ,the ministers and the prime minister of the greek government who where in charge supported the conspiracy theory. But the finding was that the fire of Parnitha spread from a small fire to a nearby area of the previus day on June 27, which had not been encircled and no measures were taken to protect the Parnitha National Park from a failure of the fire brigade headquarters. ________________________________________________________________________________ The Mediterranean climate is characterized by mild rainy winters and hot dry summers , the western shores and maountains get more rain. The peninsula of Attica is located on the eastern coast , it receives moderate rain in the winter and very little in the summer .Mount Parnitha extends along the northwest side of the mountain peninsula , stretching from north to south the Pentelikon and Hymettus mountains and other smaller maountains and hills .The cities of Piraeus and Athens have been built on a small plain and extend  from the foothills of the mountains to the west coast, this is called the basin and causes temperature inversion . The latitude is 37° 59' N , the area is moderately  affected by tropical and northeast cold winds , autumn and spring are shorter seasons and winter and summer are longer . The winter is between mild and cool , the summer warm and dry , rainfall occurs in the winter ,  the annual rainfall in the basin is 381 mm ,  in the mountain Parnitha 740 mm per year.Under  these climatic conditions the Allepo pine forests are vulnerable to wildfires, rarely the fire can spread from the pine forest to the colder area of the fir forest of Parnitha . But why in ancient Athens there were no forest fires at such a high frequency?  _________________________________________________________________________________ I have read  a report of statistical forest fires in Greece from 1983 to 2008 , every year occurring from hundreds to thousands forest fires from unknown causes  and the trend is increasing . Most forest fires happen in August and July in the warmer months of the year , waves of hot days ending with winds this time are very dangerous to wildfire . Most forest fires per county have occurred in the perefecture of Attica , after the hot days comes a wind of regret carrying  smoke and ash .The Pentelikon mountain  has been burned many times over the last 30 years , while the fir trees of Parnitha once in the last centuries . (In the next days i will prove that the natural disaster of Attica came from the uncostitutional status of Greece . The natural disaster followed after the destruction of classical Athenian civilization).  _________________________________________________________________________________Annual number of fires and burned forest area per county _________________________________________________________________________________County                 Fires   Percentage  %        Burned acres        Percentage  % _________________________________________________________________________________Attica                   83        5,58                       43.117                   8,44   _________________________________________________________________________________Kavala                 32        2,16                       29.974                   5,87  _______________________________________________________________________________ Dodecanese         31        2,06                       29.053                   5,69 _________________________________________________________________________________Larissa                 43        2,85                       28.615                   5,6   _________________________________________________________________________________Euboea                61        4,08                       24.491                    4,8   ________________________________________________________________________________ Arta                     10        0,69                       1.096                     0,21  _________________________________________________________________________________Lefkada               7          0,44                         898                      0,18   _________________________________________________________________________________Evritania             4          0,26                         217                      0,04    _________________________________________________________________________________Climate and   Population   _________________________________________________________________________________