Arsonists behind Corfu’s devastating wildfires as Greece ‘at war’

Desperate holidaymakers fled Greek island on boats to escape the wildfires

Arsonists are being blamed for devastating wildfires that have swept through the Greek island of Corfu.

Corfu mayor Yorgos Mahimaris claimed on Monday that an arsonist started the fires which have sparked mass evacuations.

Mr Mahimaris came to the conclusion after visiting three locations where fires broke out on Mount Pantokratoras.

Theofanis Skembris, deputy mayor of North Corfu, backed this view and said that four fires were “started simultaneously".

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "We have to wait for the investigation, but their first unofficial assumption is that it was arson - fires can't start simultaneously in four different places.

"The situation on the island is better now. Most of the fires are under control. There are firefighting airplanes helping. I believe that everything will be over soon."

Chariton Koutscouris, Corfu's deputy mayor for tourism and construction, also blamed the fires on people who get “pleasure out of this with the pain of the other people".

He said officials had a "suspicion" they would start over the weekend after being warned on Friday by a fire service chief.

Humans start most wildfires - either intentionally by the criminal act of arson or by accident from campfires, vehicle sparks or improperly disposed cigarettes, for example. However once ignited, wildfires are being driven to larger and more intense extremes due to rising global heat and drought conditions caused by the climate crisis.

A Greek Fire Service spokesperson said that 12 residential areas were evacuated in Corfu with tourists being taken to the village of Kassiopi. Some later fled the island on boats, according to reports.

Dozens of wildfires are burning across Greece as firefighters battle to get them under control. The blazes have led to Greece’s largest-ever mass evacuation.

A total of 64 of the fires started on Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far as temperatures peaked at 46.4C in the southern Greek town of Gytheio.

On the island of Rhodes, some 19,000 people had been evacuated from several locations as wildfires burned for a sixth day, Greek authorities said.

Greece has seen record temperatures this month (BBC Weather)

Speaking before parliament on Monday, Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the fight against the fire on Rhodes as a "war."

"We will rebuild what we lost, and cover the damages. Protecting human lives should be our priority," he said.

He also said that climate change "will make its presence ever more felt with greater natural disasters throughout the Mediterranean region".

He spoke as thousands of tourists are expected to fly home after the fires led to holidays ruined or cut short.

Aside from the environmental damage, the heavily tourist-dependent economies of the Greek islands are also set to take a hit.

Tourism accounts for 18 per cent of Greece’s output and one in five jobs. On Rhodes and many other Greek islands this reliance on the tourist industry is even greater.