A Greek prosecutor charged a man Saturday with starting a forest fire on Mt. Penteli that destroyed dozens of homes and large swathes of forest land north of Athens last week, AP reported. The 57-year-old man, who was not identified by name, pleaded innocent to the charges of arson and endangering lives, saying he had been in a cafe when the fire broke out, according to police. The man said that his son, a fire fighter, had died earlier this year fighting another blaze in Athens, police said. The prosecutor in Athens said the man had been implicated by witnesses, and ordered that he be held until Monday, when a judge would decide if he should be detained until trial. No further information about the case was immediately available. The Penteli blaze broke out Thursday morning at four different locations on the mountain, where wildfires have decimated once-lush pine forests since 1995, fire officials said. The fire on Thursday spread rapidly due to gale-force winds. Arson has been suspected in many recent forest fires in Greece, but few arrests have been made. Much of the scorched land subsequently was used for housing developments.
