Greek interior ministry officials have told Greek media that they have all the evidence suggesting that the numerous fires spawning across the country, always at night, were caused by arsonists, the Greek daily Kathimerini has said.

In the cases of the most recent conflagrations, Greek authorities have told media that the fires were "raising suspicions," as they were sparked in areas there were previously identified publicly as "high risk" areas due to the nature of the vegetation and the strong winds in the region.

One of the largest fires is now in the northern Greek island of Skopelos, a particularly green and lush island next to its larger neighbour Skiathos. Both Skopelos and Skiathos, part of the Sporades group, are popular tourist destinations, and thus a popular target for real estate developers and people who seek to have property there.

Unlike most Ionian islands in the south, such as Mykonos, Ios, Samos, Paros, and Anti-Paros, which are rather deprived of vegetation, Skopelos and Skiathois are very lush and prone to damage in the summer.

"While waiting for backup, we used bulldozers to open roads to the fire," the island’s deputy mayor, Giorgos Patsis, told Kathimerini.

Reinforcements were eventually deployed from Larissa to assist the firefighting effort and reportedly managed to tackle the worst of the blaze by late on July 29.

Mysteriously and suddenly, fires broke out on Jul 29 in Marmari area of Evia, which devastated 80ha of land by the time it was extinguished, followed by a third major blaze in Zevgolatio near Corinth, which was tackled quickly by the deployment of water dropping aircraft.

Meanwhile, a 42-year-old man was apprehended and is facing arson charges in connection with a fire that broke out on July 25 in Metaxada, in the Peloponnese.