The mayor of Stylida, Ioannis Apostolou, a contractor and the owner of a company have been remanded in custody after testifying before the investigating judge in Thebes, as part of the investigation into the wildfire that broke out at a wind farm in Boeotia and later spread into Western Attica.

The judicial process was lengthy, beginning on the morning of Thursday 6 August and concluding in the early hours of Friday 7 August at around 4.30am.

After the testimonies concluded at around 12.30am, according to information from Lamianow.gr, the investigating judge and the prosecutor unanimously decided to order pretrial detention for all three defendants.

According to information from protothema.gr, the mayor’s construction company is reported to have built the overhead power transmission network from which the fire is believed to have started.

The network carried electricity generated by wind turbines. However, experienced officers from the Directorate for Combating Arson-Related Crime, the specialist police unit that led the investigation, found the project had defects, and investigators concluded that the fire broke out after sparks were caused by two of the network’s cables.

Sources familiar with the case say it is unlikely to be a coincidence that a second incident occurred on exactly the same line about a month earlier, on 27 June. On that occasion, the fire broke out just 100 metres from the “ground zero” of the recent disaster and was brought under control quickly, as strong winds were not blowing in the area at the time.

The mayor and another person were arrested in connection with the case, while the case file also names the owner of the wind turbines, who was pursued for arrest under Greece’s time-limited in-flagrante-delicto procedure.

The defendants face felony-level charges, and the case file is also set to include the fatal collision of two helicopters at Psatha, a coastal area of Western Attica, in which two people died.

Investigators are continuing their inquiry to establish whether there were warning signs after the June fire, whether the necessary technical inspections were carried out, and whether the network’s construction met the required safety standards.