Helena Smith
speaker
49 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 30 Jul
Helena Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Good morning, Philip.
Well, as you say, so many in one day.
This is highly unusual in Greece, a country that is on the front line of the climate emergency and which every year experiences very intense wildfires.
These officers, one was as young as 25, were killed in Crete in a vehicle when they were overwhelmed by flames.
A third firefighter was killed on the mainland in Yithyon.
Reports are coming in that he actually died of natural causes brought on by the intense pressure of fighting these fires.
Well, actually, Philip, they're not that high.
They're much higher, for example, in Spain and France.
In Crete, for example, they're up in the higher 20s.
In Athens, we're at the lower 30s this morning.
What is the problem is that Greece is being whipped-lashed literally by immensely strong winds, winds as fast as 125 kilometers per hour.
And of course, these winds are raging across land that is bone dry, lots of brushwood, highly inflammable.
And this is what is making it so very difficult to contain these fires.
Even helicopters have not been able to approach the fires, the blazes in the area of Rethymnon on the northern coast of Crete, which is the center point now, the focal point of wildfires, nor have water dumping planes because of these extremely intense winds.
Yes, I would say they have.
First of all, the government has invested, successive governments have invested in ever more firefighting equipment, ever more firefighting planes.
And secondly, they've urged Greeks, you know, at the threat of being fined, to clear up brushwood in gardens around their homes.
This is a very new practice, certainly was...
you know, did not happen
as recently as two years ago.
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