“Some should have been imprisoned, while others should have been immediately removed from their positions,” he concluded. Aristides Cherub, whose testimony shocked everyone in court at the trial of the fatal fire in Eye.

A witness who lost his mother, sister and her two underage five-year-old children spoke of his dramatic experience as he searched for his dead until he found himself in a painful position to identify their bodies.

“I hope no one experiences what I and my family experienced. They don’t know what it’s like to collect half-burnt toys in the garden. You have to assess which of the girls’ belongings, which to throw away and which to give away,” the witness said, adding elsewhere to his testimony: “Those of us who remain are suffering torture. There are people like me here, and you have to protect us, we are victims, Mr. President.”

Starting his court testimony, Mr. Cherub stated, “I survived all the fires in the summer. There was always a fire truck. It wasn’t there that day. Marathon Avenue was considered a fire zone. All the summers we were there, we struggled to clear the dry grass. I live in Athens. The mayor of Rafina-Pikermiou went on television and said that there was no need to evacuate, he even asked us not to move so as not to interfere with the work of the fire brigade. There were helicopters that never took off. All agencies had time to warn the world, but they watched the world burn. It was said that the fire was moving towards Dionysus. The fire burned high until that time…”.

The witness referred to the communication he had with his mother after seeing on TV that a fire had broken out. “I was told by my mother, whom I contacted at 6:30 in the afternoon, that they had seen flames. I told her, “Get up and go.” I didn’t catch the conversation because every second was critical. They managed to get away within the next five minutes. There they met other people. The couple’s car caught fire, and soon my family and I burned down,” he said.

During his testimony, Mr. Cherub described the endless efforts he made, calling authorities and hospitals to inquire about the fate of his people.

“I called the fire department countless times… At some point I called the coast guard, but after countless times they never answered. Direct action told me it was incompetent to take me to Nea Makri police station. From there, I was told to take me to the Nea Makris Medical Center, the hospitals that collected the bodies,” the witness said and, continuing his testimony, emphasized: “As I learned later from a volunteer, around 09:00 a group of reserve commandos offered to help the firefighters in finding the bodies. Disorganization and complete lack of coordination. All this theater that was played out while they knew that there were dead people … “.

Then the Lord Cherub spoke of the times when he was called upon to identify the bodies of his men.

According to him, late at night he managed to find the bodies of his relatives. “About 2 a.m., the house was open, I didn’t find anyone inside, my sister’s car was at the house, I saw some bodies covered with a white sheet 50 meters away,” he characteristically continued: “Directly opposite there was a couple , completely burned in plain sight, not even covered. The police told me that there were two women and two children under the sheet. I realized that they are my relatives. But they told me they were young women. I asked for identification, which was difficult because on the one hand they did not have gloves, and on the other hand they said they did not want to disturb the crime scene. Finally we got there, I recognized my sister, mother and one child, the other was badly burned. The bodies were white… The children were put out with a fire extinguisher, is that allowed? This is what the police wrote in their report, that they found the bodies and emptied the patrol car’s fire extinguisher. My sister’s purse was intact and I asked for her ID. The coroner came at 12 noon. The death certificate says 12:30 noon. The collection of bodies took place at 19:00. This was done because some people in the fire department felt it was right to directly allocate €62,000 to a particular funeral home, despite other funeral homes being offered free.

Referring to the state’s attitude during those hours, Mr. Cherubim called a meeting at the coordination center of the fire brigade under the command of the “theatre”. Alexis Tsipras. “It was terribly hypocritical and insulting,” he said.

“We spent 4.5 years when the case file was in disarray, and all they did was change the Criminal Code and give the defendants more favorable sentences. The only good thing was its creation 112. 104 people had to leave to become 112…”, he added.

Concluding his testimony, Mr. Cherubim said: “Today we came here to hold a trial, but we do not know how many victims. Victims 104. It amazes me that no one talks about unidentified victims. For 4.5 years, the case for Mati became a ball. I blame not your court, but the legal framework. The accused are innocent until proven guilty, but there are people like us who become victims. Some are more to blame, some less. Some should be in jail, but everyone should be out the next day.”

“There was no one, everything was on fire”

After that, a woman who lost her sister and niece in a deadly fire came forward as a witness, and she and her nephew miraculously survived.

“No one was there, everything was on fire, not even a bird was flying,” the witness said, then describing how she was trapped in her home in N. Vouge with the garage door locked and she could not get out.

“At 22:00, there was a knock on my door from the Alfa TV channel. They asked me, “Are you alive?” I say yes and go downstairs and see burnt people in cars, just their ashes. Until 11:30 a.m., there was not a single bird flying outside the house,” the witness said, and then described how her sister and niece, who lived in a neighboring house, left after being called by the police that day, without . avoid the flames.

Her nephew, according to the witness, was the one who found them on the street with severe injuries, and when he tried to take them to the hospital, the police gave him instructions and sent him to the fire.

“My sister was screaming in pain. My nephew didn’t listen to the police, instead he went to Marathon, took them to Evangelismos where they were intubated and told to wait until they died. Luckily, I was rescued, I could have burned down in the house if the garage door had not been closed, or I could have left in the car and burned down, like my sister and niece.

Fight for salvation

A little before Mr. Alexander Floros he testified to the inhuman efforts made by him and his family to save himself. According to the witness, together with his relatives they managed to get to the shore.

They could see thick smoke from the side of the mountain as people continued to arrive at the beach and visibility deteriorated.

“We entered the sea, at some point we lost land, we didn’t see anything. We sailed, trying to stick together, the wind getting stronger as time went by. We tried to stay close to each other. Sparks and pine cones fell into the water. At some point, they made the task too difficult. We could hear the planes and we thought they were flying to save us, we called for help. At some point, my wife says: “It was …”, – testified Mr. Floros.

According to him, they began to lose courage and tried to stick together, swimming, not knowing where they were going.

“After many hours we saw some lights. We approached the port of Rafina, where ship lights shone. A fishing boat was approaching. He shone a flashlight on us, then a coil. My wife had hypothermia, the children turned blue. They gave us blankets. I saw how my grandfather swam in the sea… They pulled the woman out, resuscitated her, she didn’t survive… We were taken ashore, because of the shock we didn’t remember to call one of our people. .. We could not see well, there were ambulances on the shore. There we saw black plastic bags that were closed… If we had stayed in the house, we would have burned alive. It was such a heat load that the irons melted … ”, he said in a trembling voice and added that he had not seen a single representative of the authorities throughout his attempt to save himself and his family.

“The only uniformed person I saw was a port guard at 11 am in the port of Rafina,” he said.

Tomorrow, among other things, the lady is to testify in court. Barbara Woukakiwho lost her husband Grigory Fitro and two children in a fatal fire.