Greek mayor among three charged over wildfire near Athens

Athens: Greek authorities placed a town mayor who owns an electrical company and two others in pre-trial detention Friday after charging them with arson over a wildfire that ravaged large areas near Athens last week.

Investigators believe the blaze started on July 31 with a spark from power cables at a wind farm near Agios Vasileios, a seaside village at the foot of a mountain 85 kilometres northwest of Athens.

Giannis Apostolou, mayor of the small town of Stylida around 140 kilometres northwest of the capital, owns an electrical installation company linked to the wind farm.

Investigators are accusing him, a contractor for his company and the owner of the wind farm itself of arson and damaging public utilities, Greek media reported.

All three could face more than 10 years in jail if convicted.

Greece’s ANA news agency reported Friday that the authorities had decided to suspend operations at the wind farm, which is on the border between the regions of Boeotia and Attica.

Fanned by wind gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour, the fire quickly spread from an overhead medium-voltage power line towards the southern slopes of Mount Kithairon and reached a town about 40 kilometres from Athens.

The owner of the wind turbines is accused of failing to clear the vegetation. A fire had already broken out on the same power line on June 27, according to ANA.

At the time of the wind farm’s installation more than 10 years ago, residents had unsuccessfully attempted to block it through legal action.

In addition to the forest, scrubland and olive groves ravaged by the fire, more than 120 buildings and homes were damaged in the seaside resort of Porto Germeno, on the shores of the Gulf of Corinth.

Since the end of July, Greece has suffered dozens of blazes that have left five people dead, including three firefighters.

Two crew members of a helicopter fighting the flames also perished in a collision with another aircraft.

Scientists have long warned that man-made climate change is making periods of extreme heat and drought longer-lasting, more frequent and more intense, creating tinderbox-like conditions for wildfires to spread in.