Arson suspects arrested as Greece battles hundreds of fires

Fire department officials in Greece arrested two men Saturday suspected of deliberately setting fires, while hundreds of firefighters battled wildfires that have killed at least 21 people in the past week.

One man was arrested on the island of Evia, accused of setting fire to dried grass in the Karystos area. The fire department said the man confessed to having set four other fires in the area in July and August.

A second man arrested in the Larissa area of central Greece also was accused of intentionally setting fire to dried vegetation.

Officials have blamed arson for several fires in Greece over the past week. It remains unclear what sparked the country’s largest blazes, including one in the northeastern region of Evros, the location of nearly all the fire-attributed deaths, and another on the fringes of Athens.

Greece has been plagued by daily outbreaks of dozens of fires over the past week as gale-force winds and hot, dry summer conditions combined to whip up flames and hamper firefighting efforts. Firefighters were tackling 122 blazes Saturday, including 75 that broke out in the 24 hours between Friday evening and Saturday evening, the fire department said.

Although most new fires were controlled in their early stages, some grew to massive blazes that have consumed homes and vast tracts of forest.

“Some … arsonists are setting fires, endangering forests, property and above all human lives,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Thursday. “What is happening is not just unacceptable but despicable and criminal.”

The minister said nine fires were set in the space of four hours Thursday morning in the Avlona area in the northern foothills of Mount Parnitha on the northwestern fringes of Athens that is one of the capital’s last green areas.

A major fire was already burning on the southern side of the mountain at the time, and it continued to burn Saturday.

On Thursday, police said they arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of arson for setting at least three fires in the Avlona area. A search of his home revealed kindling, a fire torch gun and pine needles, police said.