Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said preliminary investigations have found that nearly half the dozens of fires sweeping Greece and its islands were arson, resurrecting fears that the lands are being burned so they can be developed.
Despite a perennial problem of forests being set on fire so that profiteers can make money building houses and commercial properties, Greece does not have a law that prevents development of burned land.
Dendias made the announcement after an emergency meeting with fire department officials and as one of the blazes was on the outskirts of Athens and was being whipped by high winds. He said that as part of emergency fire protection measures that vehicles and pedestrians would be banned from entering parks and woodlands in urban areas, from dusk to dawn, and possibly during the day if that was deemed necessary.
Dendias said that Greek police patrols in tandem with fire brigade motorcycle patrols were assisting and he urged citizens to be vigilant and report fires to the department. He said the fire risk was “exceptionally critical” for the rest of the week due to strong winds and dry conditions.
This year has been one of the worst since 2007 when massive wildfires, many of them set deliberately, tore through woodland and villages, mainly in southern Greece, killing more than 70 people, including an Athens teacher, her four children and mother who were vacationing in the Peloponnese.
Many fires result from negligence — open-air barbecuing, industrial work or discarded cigarettes — but some are also deliberately set. In the past, arsonists were suspected of sparking blazes in an attempt to clear forest land for building development.
“Sometimes through criminal negligence and other times under mysterious or suspicious — due to the time or the area — conditions, … fires break out that are testing the endurance of the fire service’s human resources,” Dendias said.
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