Bases say Akrotiri fire started deliberately

By Selina Denman

THE BRITISH Bases are treating as arson a huge brush fire which swept across RAF Akrotiri yesterday, forcing the evacuation of 100 people.

“We believe the fire was started deliberately with matches,” bases spokesman Robert Need told the Cyprus Mail.

Sources said the authorities suspected two people were responsible for starting the fire.

“The cause of the fire is the subject of a police inquiry,” Need added.

The fire started at around midday yesterday and spread rapidly, covering an area said to be about the size of 10 football pitches. It was contained after two hours by the combined efforts of 150 soldiers and 10 fire engines from the bases and the Cyprus fire service. RAF Akrotiri’s 84th Squadron also provided Wessex helicopters to support the effort.

There was no injury or damage to facilities, but about 100 people in married quarters were forced to evacuate their homes and flee the flames, a bases announcement said. The buildings were later declared safe as emergency services brought the fire under control.

Corporal Alasdair Allen, an eye-witness photographer said yesterday’s fire was “a grim reminder” of a devastating blaze last August, which destroyed 14 homes, including that of Major-General Ramsay, Commander of the British forces in Cyprus.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.