The images of the apocalypse were described to the court, which is looking for those responsible for the hundred deaths in Eye, eyewitnesses who testified to the moments they experienced when the fire engulfed their homes on the afternoon of July 23, 2018. Witnesses who spoke today, like those who testified at the previous trial, emphasized that there was no one to help them and that no one gave them instructions to leave in time until the fire reached their yards.

In his testimony, Alexandros Floros recounted the nightmarish hours he spent with his wife and children at sea until they were found. As he said: “I saw the fire coming towards us. Ashes were everywhere. I could see heavy traffic from Marathon and down. I shouted to my family to get out and we got into the car to leave,” said the witness, whose house was 600 meters from the shore.

“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 heard the planes, and we thought they were flying to save us, we shouted “help”. At some point, the wife says: “Here it is!”. 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 being sealed…” said Mr. Floros, stressing that if they had stayed at home they would have been burned alive and that “the only uniformed woman I saw was a port guard in aged 11 hours a night in the port of Rafina.

The testimony of the witness caused tension in the courtroom as the defense reacted to the fact that Mr. Floros did not lose a loved one and is present at the property damage trial. The objections of the defense were raised by responses in the raised tones of Civic Education, as well as the reaction of the relatives of the victims, who shouted “shame on you” to the representatives of the accused.

In court, Mr. Ioannis Hatsiatanasiou testified that he had 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. Then I saw how the car with the keys inside and with the suitcases burned down…”. As he mentioned, there was no concern for fire or anything.

The lack of competent services was also pointed out in his testimony by the witness Konstantinos Hadjistamatiou, who was in the hospital for 40 days with extensive facial burns. The witness emphasized that no one warned them of the dangerous approach of the fire: “If we had not seen smoke and fire, we would not have left,” he stressed and added that he took his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson with him to leave when the fire was now in his backyard. The witness said he saw a fire truck at 10:30 pm.

Source: RES