Longinos presented the fire brigade's initial position in an interview with CyBC radio the following day. According to the witness accounts he cited, the two suspected starting points were about 100 metres apart. He described the fire as arson on the basis of that information, but the police response made clear that this was not yet a final investigative finding. Police spokeswoman Kyriaki Lambrianidou said officers would examine the origins of the blaze and the claims that it had been deliberately set.
The fire brigade chief also said the first engine reached the scene within six minutes of the initial emergency call. Despite that response, the wildfire spread with deadly consequences. The supplied evidence confirmed two deaths but did not provide verified names, a detailed account of how they died or a complete assessment of property lost.
Concern about deliberate ignition was echoed locally. Yiannakis Yiannakis, the head of nearby Arsos village, told the Cyprus News Agency that he believed the fire was intentional. He pointed to other fires near Malia in the preceding days, including one on the Sunday before the major blaze. Those earlier outbreaks had been handled with resources available to village councils, he said, adding that the wider risk may have been underestimated. His comments were an opinion based on the recent pattern, not a substitute for the police inquiry.
Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos also called for authorities to act on the eyewitness reports. He described the wildfire as possibly the largest in the Republic of Cyprus's history and said its intensity and extent appeared to be twice those of a previous major fire. That comparison was a political assessment reported during the emergency; the supplied material did not include an independent measurement of the burned area.
The distinction between an operational assessment and a proven criminal cause was central to the aftermath. Fire officials were working from accounts that suggested two closely spaced ignition points, while police retained responsibility for establishing what happened and whether any person acted maliciously. Until that process was completed, arson remained a reported and actively investigated explanation.
For affected communities, the two deaths gave the inquiry particular urgency. Investigators needed to test witness information, establish the location and timing of ignition, and determine whether the earlier nearby fires were related or coincidental.
