Ms. Margherita Fitru, who lost her brother and his two minor children in a fire in Eyewas shocked by her testimony in court, describing the moments she experienced when she first learned that her little niece Evita was already dead, while she was looking for her brother and his children to find out if they were alive and where they were.

“I watched the fire from the media. I have made repeated attempts to contact you. I immediately had dark thoughts because I knew the area,” the witness said, beginning her testimony by describing the frantic phone calls she made to friends and acquaintances in the area after she couldn’t find her brother. “At 3 am, my brother’s wife called me and said: “Evitaki was found dead.” I went to Mati, met our neighbor, who was saved by flight to Rafina. She left first, my brother was behind. The way to save my brother was deadly. The other day, little Andreas and my brother were found at the Fragos site,” the witness said and continued: “My brother was known for his affection for his father, and if he had received basic information, he would have left earlier. His car, in a tragic twist of fate, was found undamaged on Poseidon Avenue. In the critical hours when my brother was experiencing this, the State was completely non-existent. If “112” had been activated, they would have been saved, as is done today. No preparation, no planning. Everyone acted on their own. If he had received help, they would have been alive. It was a century of sacrifice and burns. Nine months later, with this misfortune, the father also left. It is urged and urgently demanded that all those who are not in a hurry, all those who are guilty of the mistakes and omissions of the state, be brought to justice and punished. Let the court give just punishment to the guilty. They were trapped with no way to escape…”.

Earlier, a young woman told the crowd about her experience until she found her father burnt in a car, 100 meters from their home. “They left them to the mercy of fate, they did absolutely nothing,” said witness Paraskevi Tsampru, while the wife and son of the victim gave the same horrifying images to the court in their testimony. All three witnesses testified that in those tragic moments there was no fire engine, no plane, no siren, as they reported, to warn them of the impending disaster.

“When I got to the car and, bending down and looking around, I didn’t see anything and went to leave. And then someone shouted to me – I don’t know who – “look better.” I saw my father hunched over in the passenger seat with his hands on his head. They told me that I couldn’t be sure it was my father. I asked them to open the trunk because I knew he put the dog inside so it wouldn’t get scared,” said Mrs. Chambro, the daughter of the deceased, adding tearfully, “They didn’t. I did it myself. I took my mobile phone, shone my flashlight on the back of the car and saw the dog inside. I told them that my father was completely burned in that car. The car melted, but the license plate could be identified. I left, I couldn’t do anything. My father was picked up at 7 am the other day. No one informed us about the next steps. I searched on my own to find phone numbers and services I should contact. First they told me about Goody, and then they said, “They mistakenly told you to go to Goody, you should have gone to Shisto.” Then they sent us back to Goody, all day this story, back and forth.”

According to the witness, at noon on the day of the fire, she was absent from her house in Mati, as they were at a friend’s house in Glyka Nera. “Suddenly, when we were watching TV, and they were talking about the fire in Kinetta, I saw that they were also talking about the fire in N. Wutz. I immediately called my father, he said that everything was fine at home. I spoke to my father at 17:41. He told me that they were going to start packing to leave, they were supposed to put Grandpa and our dog in the car. They left in two cars. In one was my father with our dog. In the other my brother, my mother and my grandfather. About 100 meters from our house they were suddenly surrounded by a black veil of smoke, my brother made a U-turn and they tried to run away in the other direction … At that moment I tried to call them. My father’s phone answered and immediately hung up. All communication was lost. My brother, with whom I spoke, told me that they had reached the clearing at N. Wutz.”

The witness then mentioned the efforts she and her brother had made to find their father. “We started looking. We went to the Rafin Health Center at 2:30 pm. We were told that he had been evacuated. They persuaded us to go to the port of Rafina, where they took people out on boats. We could not find anything. The port administration told us to announce my father went missing We left my father’s details and our phone numbers with some Red Cross people in the port.

Earlier, the victim’s daughter testified that at 2:30 a.m. she came to her house with a volunteer, and they began searching for her father. “We entered the house and while we were looking, we realized that the house was on fire. We called the fire department, but no response. A volunteer and another entered our house at the risk of their lives, they had nothing to protect. They managed to contain the fire, and they found that the father was not inside. There was no one to inform the residents that they had to leave, to evacuate. They just left them like that at the mercy of…. My grandfather, my mother and my brother miraculously escaped,” the girl said.

In addition, during her testimony, she mentioned that in the 70 days before the deadly fire, “very good” training exercises were held in the immediate vicinity of their area. He said: “The irony is that when the exercises were carried out, there were the same data as on the day of the fire, the same winds, the same conditions. But everything worked there without any complaints, because everyone managed to coordinate, ambulance, police, drones. But after 2.5 months nothing worked. Same area, same conditions. During previous fires, we had the impression that a plane flew by and dropped a special liquid. In other fires, a patrol car drove past with loudspeakers and said “evacuate.” Nothing this time. Since then, we’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong. Everything went wrong, they were alone, and those who managed to save were saved by a miracle. I saw the planes the day after the fire was put out. It was all the forces in Kinetta…”

Subsequently, the victim’s son, Nikolaos Tsambros, testified in court, who said: “My father took the dog with him and put him in the car, and around 6:50 we left the house. Many have left the area. 100 meters from our house, I realized that it was impossible to pass. My father was following me in a car… I turned around and my neighbor yelled at me to go the other way. Suddenly, fireballs rained down, explosions were heard, the situation was similar to a military one. I thought, however, that my father was following me. We were waiting in the car for my father, who was not following us. I started calling him but couldn’t find him. We waited without an answer. After about 30 minutes we tried to go to a friend’s house in Glyka Nera. My father must have burned himself around 6. My sister and I searched the hospital, in the harbor, to see if we could find him. They found his car vertical, which means he was about to turn around, but something happened there and he couldn’t.”

The witness reported that on that day “we were alone”, as, according to him, there was no one, no firefighters, no planes. According to him, all he saw were private individuals trying to help.

Finally, the victim’s wife, Maria Tsampru, told the audience: “My husband was burned alive, he was martyred. Me, my father and my son live by accident, we didn’t know where we were going, we didn’t know anything. Is this possible in the center of Athens? I didn’t hear the helicopter fly by, I didn’t hear the sound of the siren, so many families to be destroyed? I do not know what to say….”.

Prosecutor: Did you demand an explanation?

Witness: What should I do with the explanation? I couldn’t stand on my feet, I lost my husband. What, what? Why couldn’t they?

The trial will continue on December 1.