Cost of Forest Fires

[PW in Polemi]

Over 83% of fires in the rural areas were caused by crop or stubble burning - well, there's a surprise (not!)
http://in-cyprus.com/last-years-fires-t ... rus-e112m/

The cost is astronomical, most of it down to last year's Solea fire. When will farmers learn not to light fires during the dry spell, and not to disappear off to the coffee shop before it's fully out.

[cyprusmax47]

But the bad habit to burn nearly every field after the summer has stopped.
For the sake of having a little bit pot ash as a result they killed all creatures
that survived the hot summer like lizards, spiders, chameleon etc with this method.
There were less forest fires in the past as there was much more rainfall....

Max

[PW in Polemi]

In our area, Max, most of the fields that are used for growing wheat have the stubble burnt off at the end of the season - often before the first rains. Fortunately, most farmers also plough a fire break around the edge of the field before burning the stubble.

Most of the rural fires are started when farmers pile their cuttings at the edge of the field and set fire to them. The edges of the field catch fire too and the fire just runs and runs - we've seen how fast fires move. It's frightening.

There were less forest fires in the past as there was much more rainfall....

And maybe there were fewer farmers doing the burning too. However, you'd think the farmers would realise about the lack of rainfall, and NOT burn, but their grandfathers always burned the cuttings, and their grandfathers' grandfathers did too, so the custom continues.

[cyprusmax47]

I realized that every summer specially in Polemi, Stroumbi area the
helicopters have to come to stop fire spreading in windy conditions.
Much less in other areas. In the past more than 20 years back nearly all
farmers in Polis area started fires at the end of season. OK many of them
had there dam water supply at their fields to use in case wind was spreading
the fire to the neighbor. But even then it was dangerous and I (was also farmer) would not dare
to play with fire... and a little fire breaker of a tractors width is not good enough.!
Max