A 70-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison, without suspension, for causing a fire in Kalochori, near Thessaloniki, after lighting a piece of paper in an attempt to drive away wasps, which ended up setting his field on fire.

Thessaloniki’s single-member misdemeanor court, sitting in expedited session, found him guilty of arson through negligence and did not grant him any mitigating circumstances. The sentence was suspended pending appeal, and the man was released after filing one; he was also handed an administrative fine of 5,886.56 euros by the fire department.

The fire began on the man’s own field, first burning debris and dry grass before spreading to two neighboring commercial properties and causing extensive damage.

The owner of the first business told the court his losses came to 400,000 euros, saying his business and its entire stock of plumbing supplies, tools and irrigation hoses were completely destroyed. The owner of the second business estimated his losses at over a million euros, describing how he smelled smoke and saw the fire burning in the adjacent field, had staff evacuate the building immediately, and ultimately lost the premises, offices, computers and stock of bathroom fixtures entirely.

The defendant expressed remorse in court and apologized to those affected, taking full responsibility.

He explained that he had been trying to clean out a chicken coop, spotted a wasp nest on a screen, and lit a piece of paper to chase the wasps away, but it fell and started the fire, which he then tried but failed to put out. Through his lawyer, he maintained that the field had already been cleared of dry grass before the incident.