The fire brigade and the electricity authority (EAC) on Sunday found themselves at odds with one another over the cause of a wildfire which broke out near the Nicosia district villages of Farmakas and Fikardou the previous day.

Fire brigade spokesman Andreas Kettis had said a post on X, the social media platform better known as Twitter, that the fire had been caused by a short circuit at an electricity transformer in the area.

“There was an ignition and an explosion, and a shockwave which cut a telegraph pole in two places,” he said, adding that red-hot pieces of metal and wires from a fuse box were strewn into the surrounding area and ignited combustible material in the vicinity.

However, EAC spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou refuted Kettis’ claims shortly after.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), she said Cyprus’ electricity network is “not responsible” for the fire, and that EAC would conduct their own investigation into its cause.

“EAC’s position is that its network is not responsible because the fire broke out at 4pm and everyone [in the area] still had electricity at the time. Logically, if a fuse had blown at a transformed, the power supply would have also been interrupted,” she said.

She added that in fact, the area’s power supply had remained live until 6.40pm, saying it is EAC’s belief that the power outage was caused by the fire and not the other way around.

The fire had been brought under control by midday on Sunday, though the risk of rekindling remained present.

Agriculture ministry director-general Andreas Grigoriou told CNA the fire’s containment had been confirmed by fire brigade chief Nikos Longinos, and that teams from the fire brigade would remain in place during the day to monitor potential flare-ups, given the high temperatures and high winds expected on Sunday afternoon.

In addition, Papadopoulou said power has now been restored to 90 per cent of the impacted area, and that work is ongoing to reconnect the remaining ten per cent.

Kettis had earlier said that in total, 3.2 square kilometres of dry grassland, wild vegetation, and pine trees were burnt during the fire, with damage to infrastructure and crops set to be recorded in due course.

Earlier, he had been quoted by newspaper Phileleftheros as having said there are “no active fronts” on which firefighters are tackling the fire, and that it has now been contained.

A total of five firefighting aircraft were deployed on Sunday morning to patrol the area and drop water from above when and where necessary, with a further three aircraft expected to join them later in the day.

In total, more than 250 firefighters and other workers took part in the operation to fight the blaze, with more than 60 land vehicles having also been deployed.

Late on Saturday night, Public Order Minister Marios Hartsiotis had told CNA he believed the fire would be brought under control by midday on Sunday.

“The fire was very difficult, and fortunately we had no casualties or injuries, but some individual houses, which were empty, were destroyed, while some people who were in some other houses in the area were moved away,” he said.

He added that President Nikos Christodoulides, who is currently abroad, is being “kept informed” by members of the government who remain in Cyprus.

The fire had broken out on Saturday afternoon and was one of 32 fires which had started in the space of 24 hours as temperatures across Cyprus soared.