Eastern Attica: 39-year-old arrested for arson

A 39-year-old man, a foreign national, was arrested on Thursday, August 20, in Eastern Attica, accused of deliberately starting a fire on farmland. According to a report by “TA NEA”, citing a Fire Service announcement, the arrest was carried out by officers of the Eastern Attica Arson Crime Investigation Unit. The incident occurred at around 07:15, on a side road off Lavriou Avenue. As the Fire Service states, an open flame was used, specifically a lighter, and about five square metres of low vegetation and dry grass burned. The burned area was minimal, but the act is classified as deliberate arson rather than negligence. The man arrested is presumed innocent until judged by the courts, and no identifying details beyond his age and foreign nationality have been made public.

The Arson Crime Investigation Unit operates under the Fire Service’s Directorate for Arson Crime Response and investigates the causes of fires while pursuing criminal liability. These units operate regionally and intervene even in incidents of minimal extent, since establishing the cause is pursued regardless of the size of the burned area. The arrest was made under the in-flagrante procedure: when an offence is established during or immediately after it is committed, the arrested person is brought without delay before the prosecutor, who decides whether the case goes directly to trial or a preliminary investigation is ordered. Deliberate arson is treated more severely under the Criminal Code than arson through negligence, with the distinction resting on whether intent to start the fire is proven.

Lavriou Avenue crosses the Mesogeia, connecting Pallini and Spata with Koropi, Markopoulo and Lavrio, and on either side of it lie farmland and semi-urban areas with dry vegetation, vineyards, greenhouses and warehouses. The avenue’s side roads are spots where small fires often break out during the summer months, when the grass is dry and wind can quickly carry a fire toward residential areas and the surrounding hills. For this reason, services treat even a five-square-metre incident as potentially serious. Eastern Attica has recorded a series of incidents this year, from a fire in low vegetation in Gerakas to prevention measures such as a ban in forests and NATURA areas in Rafina and Pikermi, while earlier footage had led to the arrest of a 50-year-old for arson in Anoixi.

According to the Fire Service’s nationwide tally for the period from January 1 to August 20, 2026, 733 administrative fines totaling 1,178,021.08 euros have been imposed and 308 arrests have been made under the in-flagrante procedure. Of these, 274, or 88.96%, involve fires caused by negligence, and 34, or 11.04%, fires caused deliberately — the ratio shows that the overwhelming majority of cases are not attributed to intent. In its announcement, the Fire Service noted that “the Fire Service is relentless against any action, whether deliberate or through negligence.” It has not been announced whether the 39-year-old has already been brought before a prosecutor, nor what decision has been made on how the case will proceed. Nor has the exact municipality where the incident occurred been disclosed, nor whether any damage beyond the burned vegetation was caused.