Easter bonfire rivalry leading to dangerous situation says Dali mayor

Local authorities are doing their best to “get through” to minors and minimise the likely inevitable damages from the Easter bonfire tradition, Dali’s mayor said on Monday.

Speaking on CyBC radio in the wake of Friday’s seizure by police of a stash of Molotov cocktails and hydrogen canisters, Dali mayor Leontios Kallenos said his municipality had to handle two bonfire build-ups in disparate locations.

He went on to describe a situation where various bands of youths roam about at night, stealing, stashing and hiding wood and other flammable – as well as toxic – materials, in a type of ‘sport’ aiming at outdoing the other’s bonfire.

The mayor detailed how the Molotov cocktails seized by police were likely to have been prepared to blow up one group’s bonfire stash in retaliation for the burning down of another’s makeshift hut, where the youngsters had been spending their nights.

The mayor admitted the situation was deplorable and tragic but said he just had to wonder “Where are the parents?”

Local authorities had tried to communicate with them and are being told they have no control over their children, the mayor said.

Efforts are focused on bringing the community’s youth on board with the idea of moderation, even going so far as to bribe them with a reward of meat for their Easter barbecue for good conduct, the mayor said.

Additionally, the local authorities are designating safe spaces for the bonfire build-ups far away from buildings, and have offered to supply the wood from green points.

Mayor of nearby Yeri Neophytos Papalazarou, speaking on the same programme, was adamant that the ‘soft’ approach had its merits.

Municipality crews clear away any stashes they manage to find on a daily basis, he told CyBC, despite the fact that they may get pelted with rocks and eggs, and are also monitoring the final size of the bonfires.

The accusation that local authorities have ‘dumped the problem on the police’ is unfair, Papalazarou said, maintaining that communities were cooperating to the best of their abilities with the youth, as well as the police and the fire service, whose role it is to ensure the safety of the bonfires on Easter night.

Listeners sent in messages expressing exasperation with the absurdity of the whole affair and the need for a strict curtailing of the custom, including arresting the minors and slapping their parents with fines.

Kallenos reiterated that no matter how the situation was handled, police would end up having to be involved in episodes following any kind of severe crackdown and called again on parents to assume their self-evident responsibilities.