A Greek summer tragedy

Fires have raged across southern Europe during the exceptional heat of this summer but in Greece, where they have been particularly severe and widespread, they caught the authorities by surprise. They have been occurring over weeks from late June in the forests of the north to Crete in the south. They are doubly troubling because of Greece's dramatic biodiversity — more than 25 per cent of an estimated 50,000 animal species are endemic, and by their often suspect cause. The authoritative Athens newspaper Kathimerini described the fires " an ecological crime without punishment ". The paper said there had been two million applications to declassify forest land for building and development last year, and that some who are turned down hire arsonists to clear the plots anyway. Many fear that what may have begun as natural fires in the heatwave have prompted a spate of arson attacks. The country's conservative government apologised for its handling of the disaster. " I must say sorry to all those who suffered, " as a result of the fires, said the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on a tour of Corinth where large areas of land have been razed. " No government could be satisfied with this. " An estimated 10,000 hectares have been destroyed in some 3,000 fires across the country. Record-breaking temperatures that have seen the thermometer rising above 40ºC on many days since June are thought to have sparked the fires. But last month, a 26-year-old man was jailed for setting fire to a forest, while police were investigating an 87-year-old News focus Exceptional fires have ravaged parts of Greece, which contains some of Europe's most diverse and little known ecosystems, and there are concerns many have been started deliberately. Nigel Williams reports. A Greek summer tragedy woman suspected to be behind an arson attack in northern Greece. We are in " a war against land grabbers and developers, as well as citizens who decide to build their homes on forest land, " wrote a commentator in Kathimerini. Conservationists complain too that Greece is the only country of the first 15 members of the EU that still does not have proper forest maps. The fires have destroyed large areas of oak and fir forests in the north that would take decades to regrow, said a spokesperson for Greece's WWF. And it is these forests that contain much of Greece's unique fauna. Fires …