Greece's aging power grid is found to be responsible for the majority, or around three-quarters of the area burnt in the country so far this year, according to a report in the daily Kathimerini on Monday, citing data from the Greek fire service.
Both the major wildfires on Crete in late July and the devastating fires west of Athens in early August were linked to power grid faults, with sparks caused by damaged or worn-out equipment thought to have ignited dry vegetation, the report said.
"The grid needs maintenance, just as a car needs servicing," the newspaper quoted a technician as saying.
"If the necessary work is not done, it may continue to operate, but you do not know for how long or how safely," he added.
Most of Greece's approximately 250,000-kilometer (155,340-mile) power grid runs above ground.
The partially privatized grid operator Deddie relies on private companies to maintain large parts of what technicians, who declined to be named, described to Kathimerini as an "extremely obsolete" grid.
They also criticized the way the grid has been built over decades using different materials, from different manufacturers and according to different technical standards, making maintenance more difficult.
The report noted that putting the grid underground would be unrealistic, as the cost would be up to five times higher than for overhead power lines.
