Cypriot firefighters returned home shaken by the scenes they witnessed in Greece after spending three days assisting their Greek colleagues combat the Athens wildfires that claimed 83 lives.
A total of 64 firefighters returned home safely on Thursday night after their gruelling experience and believe some the fires in the Attica region were the result of arson.
Leonidas Leonidou, deputy chief of the Cyprus Fire Service, said that the Cypriot mission arrived on the ground the day after the deadly fires were under partial control.
“The destruction we saw is enormous, it’s a biblical disaster, which took place in just 2-3 hours when the fire destroyed everything. It was an unprecedented experience for us, I have not seen such a huge destruction by fire," Leonidou said.
Chrysilios Chrysiliou director of Larnaca Civil Defence, said they had never seen such a disaster, noting that that it will take them a long time to overcome this experience.
"We will need many days, weeks, months or even years to overcome what we have experienced there. Our thoughts are constantly with the people in Attica,” said Chrysiliou.
“From the very first moment we came in contact with the people who suffered, it was unbelievable, we saw a totally destroyed city, people died, many lost their homes, their possessions and properties, we experienced difficult times and we were there to help as much as we could.”
Chief of the Cyprus Fire Service, Marcos Trangolas, said that the Service will continue its efforts in Cyprus to make people more aware of the dangers fires pose and help them adopt some measures to protect themselves until the fire brigades arrive.
The government deposited in a special account €10 mln to help the effort for reconstruction and appealed to people and businesses to also contribute in specially created bank accounts.
Arson suspected
Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas said satellite image analysis and ground inspections provided "serious indications" the fire that broke out in multiple places within a short time frame Monday and killed at least 83 people was set deliberately.
"We have serious indications and significant findings of criminal activity concerning arson," Toskas said.
"We are troubled by many factors, and there have been physical findings that are the subject of an investigation."
The fire broke out near Rafina, northeast of Athens. Fanned by gale-force winds, it raced through seaside resorts of full-time homes and vacation residences popular with Athenians and tourists.
The large area the flames swept through further complicated the process of identifying victims. Officials said there was no way of knowing how many people were there at the time.
There is still no official number of missing.
During the fire, hundreds fled to nearby beaches, with many swimming out to sea to escape the ferocious flames and choking smoke.
Dozens spent hours at sea before being picked up by coast guard vessels, fishing boats and a passing ferry. Several of the dead were people who drowned.
The worse affected area was the seaside community of Mati, where the majority of victims were found, including 26 people found huddled together, many embracing.
Some of the casualties are believed to have tried to make it to the shore through narrow pathways but lost their way in the thick smoke or had their paths blocked by the swift-moving blaze.
Even those on beaches were not safe, as flames burned trees and vegetation at the water’s edge, while flaming pine cones rained downward, survivors have said.
Recriminations about the apparent lack of an evacuation plan and what many perceived to have been a slow response has mounted, with survivors saying they had been abandoned to do whatever they could to save themselves alone.
Firefighting and rescue efforts, particularly from the air and the sea, were hampered by gale force winds and rough seas.
When the Rafina fire broke out, crews were also engaged in fighting a massive fire west of Athens that had broken out hours earlier and burnt homes.
But survivors have accused authorities of failing to adequately prepare and for not evacuating the area, as well as not responding fast enough.
