The wildfire which broke out near the Limassol district village of Omodos on Friday started in a pile of rubbish which had been left by the side of a road, fire service spokesman Andreas Kettis said on Saturday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, he said that at present, the fire service “cannot say anything more” about the circumstances under which the fire broke out.

“We found the point at which the fire started, on the side of the road in a small pile of rubbish. We located that,” he said.

He added that firefighters remain on standby in the area.

The fire burned around one hectare of dry grass, wild vegetation, and rubbish, with the gardens of three houses said to have been “slightly affected”.

In addition, Kettis said the fire brigade is “on heightened alert” due to the extreme high temperatures forecast for the weekend and the early part of next week.

As such, he called on the public to be “very careful”.

“It’s the weekend. People are going to go out. They must be very careful in their activities and what they do, because a fire can start very easily,” he said.

Earlier, he had told CyBC radio that there are around 450 illegal dumps across the island and warned of the potential dire consequences of fires which break out in rubbish dumps.

Such fires, he said, “can easily escalate and threaten villages”.

He then called on local authorities to “act responsibly and clean those areas”.

The fire in Omodos broke out on Friday afternoon and was contained shortly afterwards.

Kettis had said at the time that a total of eight fire engines belonging to the fire brigade and five more from the forestry department had been dispatched to fight the fire, while five firefighting aircraft were also deployed.

In addition, he said, the game service, the civil defence, the district government, and other organised volunteer groups also worked to support efforts to fight the fire, operating water tankers and earth movers.