A group of young people lit a barbecue on Lara beach, inside the Akamas forest park, but were caught within moments by the Forest Department’s cameras, department spokesperson Glafkos Kyriakou told philenews.
As soon as they lit the coals, the cameras picked them up. A department patrol happened to be in the area and rushed to the scene, breaking up the gathering before it could properly begin.
Kyriakou noted that, beyond the fire risk itself, there have been past cases of people digging into the sand to bury coals, or even emptying coals onto the beach.
The Forest Department recorded a second case in the same stretch of hours: a person who tried to burn weeds inside their garden in Koutrafas. Here too, a department patrol was in the area and put out the fire. The Forest Department did not stop at issuing a warning, but has begun the process of bringing the person responsible before the courts.
The question is what would have happened in both cases had a patrol not been near the two spots where fires were lit.
Asked about the department’s cameras at Akamas, Kyriakou said these include both thermal cameras that detect smoke and cameras that give the Forest Department a visual view of the forest, allowing it to check whether a fire has broken out anywhere. He said the camera system at Akamas was the first to be installed.
Speaking generally to the public, Kyriakou said that, however often the department repeats itself, it is calling on both visitors and holidaymakers, as well as professionals, to be especially careful, to protect themselves, others and the forests.
The Forest Department points out that forest fires are mainly caused by human factors, resulting from deliberate acts and from negligence, and to a lesser extent from natural causes such as lightning. The main causes of forest fires are agricultural activities, discarding lit cigarette butts or matches, lighting fires in unauthorised spots, burning rubbish in unapproved areas, military exercises, hunting activities, and activities at homes such as the use of power tools that cause sparks, or short circuits in live cables.
