Those who lived the nightmare that day, on the afternoon of July 23, testified today at the trial at the Three-member Misdemeanor Court of Athens
Apocalypse images they described to the court seeking responsibilities for the one hundred dead in Matithe witnesses who testified about the moments they experienced when on the afternoon of July 23, 2018, the fire enveloped their houses.
The witnesses who took the stand today, as well as those who testified in the previous trial, emphasized that there was no no one in charge to help them and that no one instructed them to leave in timebefore the fire was in their yards.
In his testimony, Alexandros Floros recounted the nightmarish hours he spent with his wife and children in the sea until they were found. As he said: “I saw the fire coming towards us. There were ashes everywhere. I could see a heavy flow of vehicles from Marathon and down. I shouted to the family to get out and we got in the car to leave,” said the witness whose house was 600 meters from the coast.
“We entered the sea, at some point we lost land, we couldn’t see. We were swimming, trying to stay together, the wind grew stronger as time went on. We tried to stay close to each other. Sparks, pine cones were falling into the water. At one point they made things too difficult. We could hear the planes and we thought they were coming to save us, we shouted “help”. At some point my wife says, “that was it!” After many hours we saw some lights. We had arrived near the port of Rafina, there were ship lights. A fishing boat was coming. He shone a flashlight on us, then a coil. My wife had hypothermia, the children had turned blue. They gave us blankets. I saw a grandfather floating in the sea… They pulled up a woman, resuscitated her, she didn’t make it… They took us to the shore, from the shock we didn’t remember to call someone of ours… We couldn’t see well, there were some ambulances on the shore. There we saw black plastic bags that were being closed…” said Mr. Floros who emphasized that if they had stayed at home they would have been burned alive and that “the only uniform I saw was a port guard at 11 at night at the port of Rafina”.
The testimony of the witness sparked tension in the courtroom as the defense reacted because Mr. Floros has not lost a loved one and is present at the trial for property damage. The objections of the defense provoked the responses in high tones of the Civil Education as well as reactions from relatives of the victims who shouted at the representatives of the accused “shame on you”.
In court, Mr. Ioannis Hatziathanasiou testified that he lost his sister who lived in Kokkino Limanaki. The witness said that the next morning when he went to his sister’s house “I saw the house destroyed. I then saw the car with the keys in it and loaded with suitcases burned down…” As he mentioned, there was no care for the fire or anything.
The non-existence of the competent services was also pointed out in his testimony by the witness Constantinos Hatjistamatiou who hospitalized 40 days with extensive facial burn. The witness emphasized that no one warned them that the fire was approaching dangerously: “If we didn’t see the smoke and the fire we wouldn’t have left” he emphasized and added that he took his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson to leave when the fire was now in his yard home. The witness said he saw a fire truck at 10:30 p.m.
RES-EMP
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