Investigations Begin into ‘Organized Arson’ as Wildfires Spread Across Greece

Firefighters from across Europe have arrived in Greece to help tackle around 350 wildfires spreading across the country, as investigations begin into what authorities suspect may have been organized arson.

Crews from Germany, Sweden, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Cyprus have come to the country's aid, offering water-dropping aircraft, water tanks and firefighters.

Hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes Tuesday and Wednesday, while the bodies of 18 migrants were discovered burned to death close to the border with Turkey.

The fires have come close to the capital, Athens, with over 200 firefighters battling a blaze around 12 miles north of the city. Athens itself has been covered in smoke and ash since the fire began Tuesday.

Where another fire burned out of control in Alexandroupolis, a Supreme Court prosecutor, Georgia Adilini, asked the city's prosecutor to begin investigating possible organized arson.

It comes after another local politician said the fire there had started in several places simultaneously.

The timelapse below from NASA's Earth Observatory shows the plume of smoke from the fire in Alexandroupolis stretching across the country towards Italy.

On the island of Kefalonia, a firefighter was arrested Tuesday, accused of five cases of arson related to wildfires there. Two of those took place this year.

This week's fires are not the first of the summer for Greece, after mass evacuations on the island of Rhodes and blazes on Corfu and Evia in July.

"This summer is the worst since meteorological data began to be collected," Greece's Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Canary Islands and Tenerife have also faced wildfires, forcing locals and tourists to flee.