A celebratory occasion at sea may have caused mass devastation in Greece . Thirteen crew members and passengers have been arrested after allegedly starting a forest fire on the island of Hydra on Friday night by launching fireworks from the 177-foot Persefoni I . All 13 seafarers were brought before a Greek public prosecutor at the criminal court in Piraeus on Sunday to answer charges of igniting the blaze, as reported by The Guardian .
“The prosecutor has requested that the vessel in question be seized,” the country’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection Vasilis Kikilias said. “It remains to be seen from [their] testimonies what they did, and didn’t, do.” The wildfire began at around 11:20 p.
m. on Friday and destroyed approximately 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of the island’s only pine forest, according to Kikilias. The blaze was eventually extinguished by firefighters on Saturday.
“Six airplanes and two teams of firefighters, who had to be absent from dealing with other fires and services, were required to put it out,” the minister explained. Soaring temperatures in Greece are taking a serious toll on emergency services, with the extreme weather conditions of recent days resulting in multiple fires across the Mediterranean country. Greece’s civil protection service called for extreme vigilance on Friday because the risk of fires was “very high.
” Hydra’s mayor Giorgos Koukoudakis has also said that fireworks were prohibited that night due.
