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- Ελληνικά
There will be decisions and one possible decision is the tightening of penalties, President of the Republic Nicos Christodoulides said on the issue of fires, noting that another issue under discussion is the installation of cameras to prevent fires.
In his statements to reporters, the President of the Republic, who visited last night the Coordination Centre in the area of the village of Limnatis, which was set up to coordinate the services involved in extinguishing the fires raging in the Limassol District, said: "I am here to get first-hand information on the progress of the fire, but also to congratulate all these men and women, and I must say that I am very impressed by their professionalism and by everything I have seen in the effort to extinguish the fire.
They are all here, the Fire Brigade, the Thera Service, the Police, the Civil Defence, the Forestry Department, Mr Alexandrou who is on the other side where the fire is raging, the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, who has been appointed by decision of the Council of Ministers as coordinator because there are many Services involved, and who is everywhere and always. They are monitoring, they will assess the situation and I want to publicly express my thanks to the Government of Israel and Jordan for responding immediately.
From the Jordanian side, they will be here (firefighting aircraft) tomorrow morning at the Andreas Papandreou Air Base. On the Israeli side, I expect on the basis of the assessment and information that will be made.
We have taken note of the intention on the part of our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, if we wish to assist in extinguishing the fire. On the basis of the assessment that I will hear personally tonight, we will make decisions on how to proceed."
Asked about the causes of the fire, the President of the Republic said: "I had a conversation with the Limassol Police Director, but the first and main thing, and I am glad that when I came here the first thing I was informed about was that as a precautionary measure some of our fellow citizens have been asked to leave their homes because human lives are the primary concern. From then on, when it (the firefighting operation) is completed, I am sure that the Fire Service along with the other agencies of the state will proceed with the investigation, we will have a conclusion and from then on we will act on the basis of that."
As he added: "we are certainly lucky to have such professionals, we have seen it many times over the years. At the same time, each of us must also take personal responsibility. Because you realize that in many of the cases fires are caused by the human factor. So, because we are also entering the holiday season, we all have to be careful, we all have personal responsibility, so that we do not find ourselves in unpleasant developments."
In response to a journalist's remark that the fires are raging on several fronts and there are suspicions of arson and asked whether further preventive measures should be considered, the President of the Republic said: "surely we have to wait for the findings first so that we can speak on concrete facts. I don't want to rush to refer to causes without knowing. Besides, at the moment that is not what we are interested in.
Beyond that, on the basis of the findings that we will have from the relevant agencies of the state, yes, we will have decisions and one possible decision is the tightening of penalties. There is another issue that we discussed earlier in relation to cameras. In order for an investigation to be able to lead to a certain result, the possibilities have to be there. So, cameras is an issue that has been discussed for a long time, we have to move forward."
He also added: "and the Civil Defence, and the Fire Brigade and the Police, they are all doing what they have to do. And I want to thank them publicly for what I have seen since I have been here."
Beyond that, you and I and each of us have a personal responsibility and we have to take that responsibility."
To another question, he said: "Jordan responded immediately, tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock at the latest they will be at the airbase (the aircraft) whatever the development of the fire tonight. On the Israeli side, we expect to inform them tomorrow morning.
As far as our compatriots are concerned, we have asked for some clarifications. We will look at the data in the morning and decide on the basis of the experts' recommendations. I am not an expert on the subject, I don't want to say more, if they (the fires) are under control, if they are not. I heard a lot of things coming here that do not correspond to reality. I am not an expert to talk about the fire issue, I am here to be informed on the one hand, but also to thank on behalf of the State, on behalf of the Cypriot people all the men and women from all the Services, because they are not only today, but for a long time, every day, they are faced with this kind of unpleasant phenomena."
(PM/MB)
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