Μake us preferred on Google The Third Three-Member Court of Appeals for Misdemeanors acquitted all 11 defendants accused in connection with the devastating August 2021 wildfire in Varympompi, north of Athens, which burned 100,000 acres of pine forest on Mount Parnitha and caused extensive damage to 726 homes.
The ruling, issued several weeks ago, effectively assigned no criminal responsibility or punishment for the disaster, according to reporting by TA NEA. The decision follows a series of acquittals in cases involving major wildfires in Greece, including fires in Ilia, Laconia, Achaia and Grammatikó in 2009.
Among those who stood trial were senior Fire Service officers, some of whom remain on active duty and had also been involved in managing the recent wildfire in Porto Germeno. The defendants also included officials responsible for maintaining the electricity network, forestry officials and representatives of local government.
Residents of the wider Parnitha area told TA NEA they were surprised by the ruling, describing it as a “problematic verdict that leaves those responsible for the destruction of their property unpunished.”
They said a key conclusion of the trial was that many defendants were found not to have been involved in critical decisions concerning the management of the fire or its causes, while no deliberate actions were attributed to them.
Residents also criticized the fact that wildfire victims, primarily from the Ippokratios Politeia residential area, were not represented in the proceedings. They said the victims had submitted a comprehensive report by Andrianos Gkourmpatsis, a former deputy chief of the Fire Service who had investigated the causes of the disaster and provided a detailed assessment and allocation of responsibility.
The fire and the disputed causes
The fire broke out on the afternoon of August 3, 2021, at the foothills of Parnitha near Varympombi. Within hours, it spread toward Adames, Thrakomakedones, Tatoi, Kryoneri and other parts of northern Attica.
A heat wave with temperatures of 42-43 degrees Celsius had preceded the fire, although winds were relatively weak, at 2-3 on the Beaufort scale. At the time, government officials attributed the scale of the disaster to climate change.
After the initial fire front near Tatoi Airport had been brought under control, a major rekindling occurred behind the well-known Leonidas Tavern. The article attributes the rekindling to an oversight by firefighters, saying it led to the destruction of a further 85,000 acres of forest and forced firefighting forces to be divided across multiple fronts.
The rekindling also caused extensive destruction around the former royal estate and contributed to the fire spreading into Ippokratios Politeia.
The handling of the Parnitha fire also affected firefighting operations during the devastating wildfire in northern Evia that same week. A large part of the firefighting mechanism deployed to the fire front at Rovies, Evia, which had also begun on August 3, 2021, was sent back to Attica to deal with the dangerous rekindling near Tatoi. About 500,000 acres of forest were ultimately burned in northern Evia.
An investigation by the Fire Service attributed the Parnitha fire to a transformer malfunction. A year later, 107 Fire Service officers and officials from other state agencies were asked to provide written explanations as suspects in connection with possible mistakes or omissions.
Ultimately, 11 people were referred to trial in early 2024. After a series of postponements, the trial began on February 12, 2026, and concluded in June. The reasoning behind the acquittal has not yet been made public.
According to the indictment concerning the Fire Service officers, they were accused of “inadequate supervision of the situation after the initial fire had been partially brought under control and inadequate monitoring of the fire, although it had not been fully extinguished.”
The prosecutor in the case said the defendants had “displayed negligent behavior” at the time and place in question.
