House interior committee chairman Aristos Damianou on Thursday lambasted the state’s response to the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district and killed two people in July, speaking of “institutional absence and inaction”.

Addressing a joint session of the House agriculture, environment, and interior committees held in light of the fire, he said not one meeting had been held between the environment commission and the agriculture minister over the matter of the environmental restoration of the area.

“Let’s tell things as they are: I cannot understand how for such a monumental problem, the environment commissioner has not met with the agriculture minister,” he said.

The fire broke out on July 23, and burned an area of 124 square kilometres.

No fewer than 17 villages in the mountains above Limassol were impacted, with 13 of those villages suffering “severe” losses to property.

A total of 706 buildings succumbed to the flames – 335 were completely destroyed and 371 partially. Among them were 532 homes, 109 warehouses, 29 business establishments and 36 other constructions.

Over 775 farms also suffered total or partial loss of livestock and cultivations.