FOREST
FIRES
Fires are the greatest danger that Parnitha’s natural environment faces and unfortunately, they are very common in the area. In order to better understand and resolve efficiently this problem, the Forest Service of Parnitha has conducted a thorough research in the Service’s files that record the time, place and burnt area of all the fires from 1913 until 1997. 
By the year 1950, only large fires have been recorded. Since 1950, all incidents were fully recorded.
The most important conclusions from the above-mentioned research are:
•
The number of fires depends more on the range of human activity in the forests and less on the existing vegetation (type, density, etc.)
•
The dense Tatoi road network, although it is one of the largests in the Greek forests (33 m/Ha in its south part), had no affect in the above-mentioned rate, which in the specific forest has the maximum value (62,017 Ha./ fire).
•
The most catastrophic fires for the period 1959-1996 (with full data) occurred under heavy weather conditions and their causes was arson, (Parnitha 400 Ha. in 1977,
Varympopi 520 Ha. in 1986) or unknown (Tatoi 1,300
Ha. in 1974 and 500 Ha. in 1987, Fyli 1,050 Ha. in 1989).
•
The number of fires in private forests represents 24%
of the total number of Parnitha’s fires and 67%
of the burnt area. The rate of burnt area per fire in these forests is 79,645 Ha./ fire.
