A 40-year-old Polish tourist has been handed an eight-month prison sentence after accidentally starting a fire while cooking an outdoor barbecue in Epanomi, Greece.
The court ordered the eight-month term to be suspended for three years, meaning the traveller will avoid immediate imprisonment provided he refrains from further legal infractions during his probation period.
Emergency services were dispatched to the scene after the vacationer decided to grill meat outdoors during his stay in Epanomi, according to Ekathimerini.com, the English-language portal of major Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini. The resulting blaze spread across the dry terrain, burning approximately 39 square metres of dry grass before firefighters managed to extinguish the flames.
Court hearing and legal defence
During his court hearing following the incident, the Polish national stated that he had not anticipated any negative consequences from preparing his meal outdoors. He explained to the court that he was entirely unaware of local environmental regulations prohibiting open fires in the area.
The judge sentenced the man to eight months in prison with execution suspended for three years. Under Greek criminal procedure, a suspended sentence allows convicted individuals to remain free provided they comply with court conditions throughout the three-year term.
Wildfire prevention in Greece
Epanomi is a coastal town in northern Greece located along the Thermaic Gulf in the Thermaikos municipality. The region experiences hot Mediterranean weather, leaving dry grasslands and scrubland vulnerable to sparks from outdoor cooking equipment.
Greek authorities enforce strict fire safety codes across tourist regions to prevent devastating summer wildfires. Greek legislation heavily penalises unauthorised open flames, camping fires, and outdoor grills during dry periods, with emergency services routinely prosecuting visitors and residents who breach environmental restrictions.
Similar outdoor fire penalties
Accidental fires caused by holidaymakers have drawn heavy legal and financial penalties in other regions. In a separate incident in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai, a vast territory in central Siberia, a tourist launched a signal rocket to celebrate May Day on May 1 and accidentally set fire to a forest.
The tourist was ordered by authorities to pay 1.8 million rubles in compensation. The fine was imposed to cover both the ecological damage to the woodland and the financial expenses incurred by emergency services while extinguishing the fire.
