The raging wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes may have been started deliberately by arsonists, according to the local fire brigade.
The fire, which started on Tuesday, has caused over 30,000 people to be moved from their homes, making it the biggest evacuation ever seen in Greece according to authorities. Thousands of tourists have been forced to flee, including Irish citizens, with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs urging Irish people not to travel to affected areas of the country.
It comes amid a summer heatwave in the Mediterranean country, with claims that temperatures in some parts of Greece have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in the past week. This has led many to link “climate change” to the destructive blaze.
“TEMPERATURE SPIKE STOKES FLAMES – Fires are common in Greece but climate change has led to more extreme heat waves across southern Europe and many parts of the world,” Reuters reported yesterday.
Both RTÉ and the Irish Times similarly weighed in, saying that “Fires are common in Greece but hotter, drier and windy summers have brought more of them in recent years.”
They added: “Climate change means heatwaves will become more frequent, an advisor to the World Meteorological Organization said on Saturday.”
However, yesterday evening a spokesman for the local fire brigade told the Mirror that firefighters on the ground believe the blaze was caused deliberately and that there are ‘indications of arson’.
“Fires are set by human hands,” Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told the Mirror.
“Whether it is due to negligence or fraud will be seen, (but) people have been summoned for statements and others will be summoned.
“As soon as we have complete information – because the investigation is in full swing – we will make announcements.”
This would not be the first time arsonists had caused wildfires in Greece and Europe more broadly.
In Greece nine suspected arsonists were arrested last July on suspicion of starting wildfires.
Nine arrested for sparking Greece’s wildfires https://t.co/qloYTwfiRS pic.twitter.com/0qo4hHGblf
— Greek News Online (@GRK_News_Online) July 28, 2022
Last August, in the wake of a spate of fires across Europe during a similar heatwave, a French volunteer fireman admitted to setting at least 8 fires throughout the summer of 2022 for the “adrenaline” rush, and that he had been setting fires for the past three years.
French fireman admits he set at least 8 fires throughout the summer for the “adrenaline” rush, and that he has been setting fires for the past three years#gripthttps://t.co/Gs7awRm6dX
— gript (@griptmedia) August 4, 2022
The man’s arrest came mere days after French authorities arrested another man near Bordeaux over a separate large fire incident which is believed to have been sparked on purpose.
Suspect arrested for deliberately starting fire that burned 13,000 hectares of forest land in France https://t.co/gFvxybI1nz pic.twitter.com/UI7fpdQBJg
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) July 19, 2022
Additionally, as reported by RTÉ, two fires which broke out in France’s north western region of Brittany were also believed to be acts of arson.
Three recent French wildfires were arson, say prosecutorshttps://t.co/2X9QSsbMbt
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 25, 2022
As reported by the Mirror, Spanish authorities suspected an arson attack after the Spanish north-western region of Galicia experienced intense flames last August.
Despite these findings, many media outlets were quick to attribute the pattern of fires to climate change last year.
“Authorities across southern Europe battled on Sunday to control huge wildfires in countries including Spain, Greece and France, with hundreds of deaths blamed on soaring temperatures that scientists say are consistent with climate change,” Reuters reported in July 2022.