Authorities have intensified enforcement amid yet another demanding wildfire season so far in Greece, with 197 arrests reported in tandem with administrative fines of nearly 786,000 euros imposed between Jan. 1 and July 16 as arson investigators and police pursue those responsible for hundreds of incidents nationwide.
The crackdown has picked up over the past week, culminating in a record nine arrests on Wednesday and four more on Thursday, as the country continues to battle successive wildfires fueled by seasonal heat, prolonged drought in some regions and strong seasonal winds.
In the latest cases, a man was arrested in the Thessaloniki region after authorities determined he was responsible for starting a wildfire through negligence. He was detained under Greece’s summary criminal procedure by wildfire arson investigators, assisted by an investigative team deployed to the city to reinforce local inquiries.
In a separate incident, two men were arrested after a wildfire broke out at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday along the Alepochori-Psatha provincial road near the Vilia settlement, west of Athens proper, during vegetation-clearing work using agricultural shredding equipment as part of fire prevention operations.
The suspects, a 40-year-old foreign national and a 43-year-old local man, were detained on negligence charges.
Fire authorities said that between Jan. 1 and July 16, a total of 577 administrative fines amounting to 785,935.68 euros have been imposed, while 197 people have been arrested in connection with wildfire investigations. Of those, 181 arrests, or nearly 92%, involved alleged negligence, while 16 concerned suspected intentional arson.
Investigators remain on heightened alert nationwide, conducting inspections and moving quickly to identify those responsible whenever fire safety violations are detected.
Officials stressed that the overwhelming majority of wildfires in Greece continue to be caused by human negligence, urging the public to avoid activities capable of producing sparks or ignition sources during periods of extreme fire danger.
Wednesday marked the highest single-day total of wildfire-related arrests this year, with nine people detained in connection with nine separate negligence cases across eight regions of the country. Four additional arrests on Thursday brought the two-day total to 13, underscoring the authorities’ intensified enforcement campaign during the peak of the 2026 wildfire season.
The arrests come as Greece remains on high alert following a succession of destructive wildfires over the past month that have stretched firefighting resources across multiple regions.
