generalspeaking

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Deadly Arson, From Israel To Greece

"We have serious indications and significant findings of criminal activity concerning arson."
"We are troubled by many factors, and there have been physical findings that are the subject of an investigation."
Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas

"The procedure is difficult, harder than that of other mass disasters which we have dealt with in the past as a forensics department."
"Here, the main cause of death was burning, in most cases the complete burning [of the body], so identification is very difficult."
Coroner Nikolaos Kalogrias

In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens Associated Press

Greek authorities are blaming the flimsy structures of the village of Mati as being responsible for part of the death toll of 82 people, that the maze of buildings and blocked roadways helped the wildfire spread and foiled peoples' efforts to escape. Greeks and tourists trapped by the fire and forced to find their own escape routes and to protect themselves as well as they could from death, are in turn blaming the government for not having in place a semblance of responsible and responsive communications, guidelines and response teams to rescue people in such dreadful disasters.

Now that Greek authorities have stated publicly that fires that broke out in multiple places within a short period of time from each other were likely to have been deliberately set, a criminal investigation is under way to find the fire-setter, singular or plural. Suspicion is rumoured that a Pakistani migrant may have been involved. Actual suspicions and details have not been divulged; it is the rumour mill that is being challenged on overtime. The arson section of the fire department is conducting the investigation into the start of the wildfires.

A pall of smoke turns large parts of the sky orange over the ancient Acropolis hill,

Rex Features

If suspicion is validated, it would be an interesting development, should a foreign agent be found to be involved. There is a precedent, in fact, where wildfires are being incessantly and deliberately set in Israel, from across the Gaza border. These incendiary attacks are numerous, following Friday night mosque prayers when religious authorities and Hamas operatives incite Palestinians to go forth and light fires with the use of kites, balloons, whatever can be flown across the border into fields, farms, orchards and settlements where vast acreages of land have been scorched, animals have been killed and a costly replanting will eventually be undertaken.

As usual, there is no global condemnation of these events. Firefighting crews in Israel are in a state of constant vigilance. Frustration grows that arable land is being devastated. The danger to residents nearby the border is obvious and fraught with potential. On occasion, IEDs have been found attached to these flying unguided missiles. The discovery of a dead bird fitted out with an incendiary device was yet another indication that any imaginative, destructive steps that can be undertaken courtesy of the terrorist group Hamas, will be.

Firefighters and soldiers fall back as a wildfire burns near Athens

Reuters

The mayor of an area where one of the wildfires broke out felt that the cause could conceivably have been sparks emanating from a severed electricity pylon cable. Meanwhile, rescue crews and volunteers continue their desperate search for victims whose bodies have not yet been discovered. The fear being that the death count of 82 may yet rise. As it is, many of those who have been found dead were unrecognizably burned, ensuring that identification will be extremely challenging.

Fanned by gale-force winds, the fire that broke out near Rafina, northeast of Athens, sped throughout seaside resorts or local homes along with vacation residences, burning all in its wake, including hundreds of vehicles. These areas, popular in the summer with tourists and Athenians alike have been destroyed. According to officials, given the large area involved complicates the need to assess the number of people who may have been present as the fires broke out, to attain an official number of those still missing.

Firefighters try to extinguish flames during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa, a northeast suburb of Athens, Greece

EPA

"In the sea, there was a rain of fire, there was smoke, there was a Force 12 wind. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to my mother", sorrowfully remarked 53-year-old Thanassis Moraitis, looking for his 90-year-old mother's body at the local morgue. He, his wife and 19-year-old son along with his mother had attempted to drive away from the fire, but were unable to outrun it. They were forced to abandon the car and try for the beach to reach the water to protect themselves from the raging fire. All but his mother managed to reach the water.

As they ran for the beach Moraitis sustained leg burns from the heat-suffused air. How quickly could a 90-year-old woman move to outrun a raging inferno? Meanwhile "serious indications" identifying almost-simultaneous fire breakouts have been provided by ground inspections and satellite image analysis. What remains to be seen is whether those suspicions are validated, and whether a criminal investigation to identify a perpetrator will succeed.