Salamina: arson unit locates fire's starting point

The point from which Sunday’s deadly fire in Salamina started has now been located by the Directorate for Combating Arson Crimes. According to reporting by ERT, the so-called “zero point” is placed in an area near a stream, on Andromachis Street in Peristeria, and has been cordoned off by authorities since the early hours of Monday. Officers from the unit climbed utility poles carrying power lines in the area, cut and removed sections of cabling, which were sent for laboratory analysis in Athens. At the same time, video footage is being collected from cameras in the area and witness statements are being taken from residents. The fire, which cost two people their lives and left ten injured, remains under investigation and no cause has yet been officially confirmed.

Two scenarios are on the investigators’ table. The first, an electrical fault or spark from the grid, was examined and the relevant samples were sent to laboratories, though according to reports it does not appear to be the leading possibility. The second scenario, which according to Enikos is now the main line of investigation, places the start on the balcony of a home a short distance from the starting point. Investigators are examining the possibility of an open flame being used, which under the strong winds could have spread first to low vegetation and then to the pine forest. According to the same information, objects were seized as possible evidence. TodayGrid does not publish the identifying details of private individuals, since this is an ongoing investigation and no one has been officially charged.

A second, separate front broke out about twenty minutes later, next to a road, at a point where there were dry grass and rubbish and where, according to the reports, no power line runs. For this front, scenarios of human negligence are being examined. Here the sources diverge, and the discrepancy is worth noting: ERT places the second front in the Elliniko area, while Enikos and iNewsgr place the same incident in Selinia. Earlier reporting by AlphaNews referred to Kaki Vigla in Selinia and gave times of 14:43 for the first front and 15:03 for the second, a timing consistent with the twenty-minute gap. The distance between the two fronts and the time separating them remain among the key questions of the investigation.

The next step is twofold. On the investigation side, the results of the laboratory analyses of the cabling samples and the other seized items are awaited, along with the assessment of the camera footage. On the recovery side, from the morning of Tuesday, 18 August, inspections of burned buildings begin, carried out by teams from the General Secretariat for Natural Disaster Recovery. It is a reminder that during the fire hundreds of residents and visitors were evacuated by sea, while two women remain at Thriasio Hospital. Any person who may become implicated in the case file is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the courts. More reporting on the area is published on the Salamina page.