“Speaking of it Eye about arbitrary and urban planning issues that made it difficult to remove residents, then what can we say about Kineta? And despite all that, in Kineta on the same day the residents were evacuated, there was time and the necessary escape network,” said the court judicial expert Dimitris Liotsios for the fateful afternoon of July 23, 2018.

The defendant, who is on his 13th hearing before the Three-member Court of Misdemeanors that is trying 21 defendants for the tragedy in Mati, today received questions from the then commander of the Unified Operations Coordination Center, Ioannis Fostieris, who is not represented by a lawyer.

The judicial expert, referring to what has been heard about the difficulty of the evacuation plan due to urban planning issues in Mati, repeated in response to a related question from Mr. Fostieris that the only difficult point in the area is Kokkino Limanaki: “All the other area is straight, there are accesses and roads. The area does not have any particular urban planning problem: there are roads, elongated plots, accesses. If we say this about Mati, what can we say about Kineta? And despite all that, nothing happened in Kineta. (no one was in danger) There was the necessary escape network and the time to evacuate the residents.”

According to Mr. Liotsios, the ESKE was informed in time by the first head of the fire about the danger it had and therefore that there was room to develop action and prevent the tragic development that eventually took place. “Everyone was aware of everything and it is proven by documents” the expert emphasized to Mr. Fostieris pointing out that they received a notification from the head both by phone and by radio. He also said with intensity that the fire chiefs were “begging for ground and air forces”.

Once again, the incendiary listed the actions that were not taken that afternoon and the criticality of the timely and immediate reaction at the origin of the incident. Mr. Liotsios referred to the absence of the ground firefighting forces, the non-immediate response of the air forces, and the non-timely dispatch of reinforcements despite the calls of the fire chiefs. He also emphasized that the state apparatus had not been put on general alert in time. However, the witness emphasized the non-dispatch of the air assets, except for one, which did not arrive until 18:10 and 18:20 and the criticality of the immediate response in the birth of the event that ended in destruction.

“From 4:41 p.m. to 6:05 p.m., that is, for about an hour and a half, the fire traveled a distance of 2.5 kilometers. Then, after the fire crossed Marathon Avenue, it became more difficult to extinguish it,” said the expert with the accused , then the Commander of the Fire Department of Nea Makri to intervene, telling the president that the visibility was not good “we couldn’t see from the aerated soil”.

The witness even said at one point with an emotional charge that it is not correct to say that the Fire Department was not able to do something “Many of our colleagues have sacrificed for this purpose. There is nowhere written that we do not do something. How many of our colleagues have been lost to save a life? The war memorial is full. We insult these heroes when we say that nothing was being done.”

Regarding the issue of the aerial surveillance that was carried out that day by air club boats because the GEA had not been notified in time, Mr. Liotsos during his examination by Mr. Fostieris asked the former head of ESKE if an attempt was made to conduct surveillance

Ioannis Fostieris: The aircraft are for suppression and not for surveillance.

Dimitris Liotsios: The forest plan says otherwise

Ioannis Fostieris : The forest plan you co-signed refers to Attica, are you talking about Attica or all of Greece?

Dimitris Liotsios: I’m talking about Attica.

Ioannis Fostieris: We have three aerial means (Cl).

Dimitris Liotsios: Why do you say three means? We have so many that could have been used for surveillance.

President: Are you saying that one of the helicopters, for example a canard, could be used for surveillance?

D Liotsios: Right!

Ioannis Fostieris: This is wrong!

Dimitris Liotsios: Okay, it will be evaluated by this court!

Ioannis Fostieris : With the data of Mr. Liotsios we have gone outside of reality.. We have a fire and we are governed

rules and laws. We don’t do what we want!

Dimitris Liotsios: There are laws everywhere! But some things are done in excess.

Ioannis Fostieris: Aerial vehicles are not motorcycles. American film we have made it the legal event. It takes 45-55 minutes to reservice and 20 minutes to command to rise.

Dimitris Liotsios: There were options for re-parking helicopters outside of Attica.

Ioannis Fostieris : Can you tell us which airports we can go to by air outside of Attica?

Dimitris Liotsios: Skyros, Andravida, where there was a danger level of 2 that day.

At today’s meeting, the Fire Department was called to extricate a newborn kitten whose cries could be heard loudly from an adjacent auxiliary area of ​​the Funeral Hall. The firefighters who arrived were unable to free the animal, so animal welfare members were called by the residents of Mati, who managed to help the baby. The kitten was immediately adopted by residents and named “Eye”.