Multiple blazes gradually tamed
Firefighters were yesterday battling blazes on Crete and in Arta and Ioannina, northwestern Greece while firemen remained on standby in the Vale of Tempe, in Thessaly, following a difficult night that saw several homes there threatened by flames. The Tempe fire had been brought under control by yesterday morning after burning some 450 hectares of forestland on Wednesday. By early yesterday afternoon at least five fires were reported to have broken out in the Ioannina area, another near Arta and two on Crete – one in the prefecture of Rethymnon and another in Ierapetra in the south. Most of the fires that had been burning since Wednesday, including a large one near Markopoulo, northern Attica, had been brought under control by late yesterday. Blazes on the Ionian islands of Corfu and Cephalonia and on the Aegean island of Andros had also been extinguished. Meanwhile police in Athens arrested a 27-year-old man suspected of accidentally starting a large fire in the area of Dervenhorio, west of Mount Parnitha, on Tuesday morning, which spread more than 20 kilometers southwest and threatened several villages. The 27-year-old allegedly ignited the fire while trying to clear a wasp’s nest from a fuel pipeline control box. The suspect, whose job it is to inspect fuel pipelines, reportedly telephoned the fire brigade himself and joined subsequent efforts to control the fire so he is not suspected of setting the fire deliberately. But he is still expected to be charged with accidental arson for the fire which quickly spread to a neighboring forest, fanned by strong winds. Yesterday’s blazes came on the back of more than 100 fires on Wednesday as the fire service struggled to keep up. Arson was suspected in many cases.
