Athanasios Mpalafas
Fire Lieutenant General
He was born in 1970 in Paleovracha, Fthiotida, and graduated from Sperchiadas High School and High School. He graduated from the Department of Physical Education of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. He holds a master's degree in Natural & Man-made Disaster Management from the Department of Environmental Geography and Applied Economics/Geography of Harokopio University. He speaks the English language well.
He is married to Theodosia Tsilimagou, a kindergarten teacher, who also comes from Paleovracha, and they have two children, Christos, 24, who is studying at the Hellenic Fire Academy Officers' School, and Dimitris, 19, a police cadet.
He joined the Fire Fire Corps in 1996 and graduated from the Hellenic Fire Academy Officers' School in 2000 with the rank of Fire Second Lieutenant.
He served in the Fire Station of Kos as head of the Investigative Department, as head of the Fire Echelon in Karpathos, as Commander, Deputy Commander and as operational Officer of the 1st Special Disaster Response Unit and as Commander of the Fire Station of Makrakomi. He also served for a number of years as the head of the Pedestrian Department of the Regional Fire Administration of Attica.
He holds a parachutist degree from the Hellenic Army, a scuba diver degree from the Hellenic Navy's Underwater Disaster Management and a crisis management degree from the Training Institute of the Ministry of the Interior. He has also completed the Helicopter Rescue School in France.
He is certified in Wildfire Strategy, Tactics and Safety by the US Department of Agriculture. as well as in the provision of first aid in trauma (Pre Hospital Trauma Life Support).
He has participated in the European program "FIRE 4" for the immediate response to forest fires and in the training program "Rapid Response Capability 7" while he has attended a number of seminars such as "Management of Natural Disasters and Public Administration" at INEP, "Road Transport of Dangerous Goods - Identification of Risks - Legislative Framework", "Incident Command System" of the U.S., "Development and way of response of rescue teams in an international environment (INSARAG/UNDAC Awareness Training)" of the U.N.
He is trained in the management of gaseous fuel fires in England, in the protection of Critical Infrastructure by KEMEA and is a certified adult trainer by EOPPEP.
He has written a book on "Rescue Organization in Traffic Accidents" and on "Basic Guidelines for Building Evacuation Planning".
He participated with an announcement in the conference Safe Athens 2017 - New Technologies in the Civil Protection Service and as a speaker in a number of Conferences.
He has completed the cycle of seminars - trainings of the European Civil Protection Mechanism up to the highest level of Expert and has participated either as a member of the Greek team or as a Liaison Officer or as an evaluator in many international exercises (Norway, Armenia, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Portugal , France, Spain, Croatia, Montenegro, Turkey).
He was the head of the Greek Search & Rescue team of the Fire Brigade that Greece has declared to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. on disaster matters and is registered in the register of Civil Protection Experts in the EU. in matters of natural and man-made disasters.
He is a regular professor, for a number of years, of the Fire Academy while he has taught at the National Center for Public Administration and Self-Government and at a number of Vocational Training Centers.
He participated in many rescue, firefighting and disaster response operations in Greece, many of them as a leader, while he participated as Deputy Commander of the Greek mission in Thailand after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean, (2004), as Deputy Commander of the Greek mission in Israel for dealing with the forest fire on Mount Carmel in Haifa (2010) and as Commander of the Greek search and rescue team in Albania after the earthquake of November 26, 2019 in the wider area of Durres.
During his professional career, he was promoted to all grades by selection while receiving many moral awards.
During the recent crises he was promoted to the rank of Fire Lieutenant General and posted as Chief of Staff at the Helenic Fire Corps' Headquarters.