For a fourth consecutive day, firefighters and dozens of volunteers were yesterday engaged in what was described as a heroic battle against the massive wildfire that began on Friday in Boeotia and spread into Western Attica, leaving behind burned homes, scorched forest land and a region under a state of emergency.
The destruction, one of the largest recorded in the area in recent years, was accompanied by the loss of two lives and has led to arrests that are raising questions about responsibility for the disaster.
Two pilots killed
On Sunday, two leased Bell helicopters collided during a firefighting operation in the Psatha area.
The unprecedented collision claimed the lives of the two crew members aboard one of the aircraft, a Danish pilot and a Greek coordinator.
The crew of the second helicopter, a British pilot and a Greek crew member, survived with minor injuries.
The investigation into the circumstances of the accident was assigned by prosecutors to the Hellenic Police, with support from the Arson Crimes Directorate, which carried out inspections at both the crash site and the landing site of the second helicopter.
Widespread evacuations
The wildfire, with its main front at Kandili, Megara, and a second front across the wider Psatha area towards Vilia, Kryo Pigadi and Agios Nektarios, prompted authorities to issue successive emergency 112 alerts ordering the evacuation of residents from numerous settlements.
The affected areas included Psatha, Kandili, Ano Vlychada, Agios Konstantinos, Loumba, Morfeika, Ano Alepochori, the Megara Industrial Area (VIPE) and Papa Perivoli.
In the Katsikali area of Megara, the fire reached a livestock unit.
In recent days, rescue teams from the Intermunicipal Centre for Stray Animals, Dogs Voice and ANIMA have collected more than 145 animals from the affected communities.
The arrests
At the centre of the investigation into the fire that originated in Boeotia are two men who have been arrested and are due to appear before an investigating judge today.
The suspects are the mayor of a municipality in Central Greece, who is also the owner of the construction company responsible for the overhead electricity transmission network linking a private wind farm to the central HEDNO grid, and the project's technical manager.
The two men face charges of:
- Arson in a forest area with possible intent
- Causing damage to public utility infrastructure
- Destruction of another person's property of particularly high value
According to evidence gathered during the preliminary investigation, the wildfire is believed to have been caused by a fault in the network, which resulted in cable oscillation and a spark.
Investigators say a similar incident had already been recorded at the same location on 27 June.
Scale of the destruction
According to an analysis of satellite data from the European Copernicus programme conducted by the National Observatory of Athens, the area burned across Boeotia and Attica exceeds 111,000 hectares.
Of that total, approximately 81,000 hectares relate to the wildfire in Porto Germeno.
The latest disaster adds to a long series of major wildfires that have struck Western Attica since 2018, with the total burned area in the region over the past nine years now exceeding 480,000 hectares.
No room for complacency
"There is absolutely no room for complacency," the deputy spokesperson of the Hellenic Fire Service said, as firefighting operations continued across the affected areas.
