Each summer we learn of new forest fires, usually in Italy, Spain, Australia and parts of America. The destruction to the environment is dire, yet often the casualties are low.

Until this summer.

The tragedy that is unfolding across the Peloponnese and other areas of Greece is one of epic proportions, with sixteen people dying today alone – bringing the total figure of fatalities to over fifty.

Some 200 fires are raging across the country, and aside from the Peloponnese, the most serious are in Kastoria, Ioannina, Arta and Attica.

The accounts of people being burned alive in their cars as they sit in gridlocked traffic waiting to flee their homes are such that Europeans have only pondered in our wildest nightmares.

What makes it worse is the origin of the fires. Nature has demonstrated her fearsome might with alarming frequency over the past few years, yet the current situation is Greece is far more chilling as it is initiated by our fellow man.

According to Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis, so many fires have broken out within hours that it “cannot be a coincidence.”  Indeed, there have been at least three arrests of people suspected of arson, and reports of cotton wool found soaked in petrol. The suspects included a man in his 60s, as well as two youths.

Doubtless, while many are the result of human error – discarded cigerettes, neglected campfires – an unsettling number are started in cold blood.

“Generally about 30% of human-caused wildfires are deliberately set, ” says Timothy Huff, a former FBI profiler specialising in arson, who has investigated hundreds of fires in the United States.

The motivations for such actions are wide ranging, including: revenge, excitement, profit, vandalism, extremism, and to cover another crime. However, excitement has proven the most common impetus, as certain arsonists are motivated by the ‘hero factor’ – people who want to be involved and to take the credit for fighting the blaze.

Equally unsavory is the ‘power factor’, according to Huff:

“Here there’s the overriding factor of power – that is, the power to get revenge against a person that’s offended them, or a group or institution, or society in general. These are set by persons who believe they’ve got a bum deal and want to get back against the world.”

The worst fire to date has been in the area of Zacharo, in the western Peloponnese, where ten deaths have been reported.

Another six people, including two French tourists, were found dead near a hotel in Areopolis on the Mani peninsula where a fierce blaze burnt large tracts of land. A firefighter also died of a heart attack after inhaling fumes during attempts to extinguish the blaze.

A state of emergency was declared in Laconia and Messinia where several blazes were under way, the worst on the slopes of Mount Taygetos, one of the most inaccessible parts of the country.

Respite depends on the weather, says Messinia Prefect, Dimitris Drakos: ”If the winds don’t abate, so that firefighting aircraft can start flying, then the destruction will be massive.”

Only yesterday a fire that broke out near the oil refinery in Elefsina was extinguished before it could approach fuel tanks.

“The situation is truly dramatic, every minute another fire is breaking out somewhere,” senior fire service officer Nikos Diamantis said yesterday afternoon.

Pitted against such odds, the people of Greece are toiling on. The greatest tragedy is that it need not have happened at all.

Oι σκέψεις μου είναι με σας.