On the morning of July 23, 2018, nothing suggested that it would be a different day from the others. On the afternoon of that day, the fire that entered Mati would cause a national tragedy of global proportions; being the second deadliest fire on the planet in the 21st century, after Australia’s in 2009 with 180 deaths.
To the hell of that day, which started because a 65-year-old man decided to burn dry brush in 8 Beaufort winds, in a chaos of disorganization, mismanagement and poor coordination, 104 people would have lost their lives in a horrible way and hundreds of others would have been scarred physically – as burned people – and mentally, since to this day the sounds of the fire that consumed everything, the screams of the people burning next to them, echo in their ears.
Six years later, the people who lived through that horrible day do not feel vindicated. Not only because there was no evacuation plan, no rescue plan, nor for the show put on in front of the TV cameras by members and officials of the then government – who “didn’t know” about the dead – while victims were found under burnt cars, in the street, in their homes, in the sea and, most of them, in the horror plot on Republic Street where 26 people were found charred to death. But because no one has emerged to take responsibility.
That is why after the end of the trial, in which 6 of the 21 defendants were found guilty (who were released, since the estimated sentence of 5 years imposed on them is redeemable for about 40,000 euros), the victims’ relatives erupted. Some moved towards the bench and the defendants, some threw chairs, some shouted “shame”, others cried. After the reactions to the first instance verdict with the sentences-anvil, the last hope of the victims’ relatives and survivors is the Court of Appeal. With the risk of the statute of limitations looming as the case must be decided irrevocably, i.e. also by the Supreme Court, by 2026, the 21 defendants have been seated in the dock of the three-judge Court of Appeal for Criminal Matters, being tried from the beginning. Yesterday’s sixth session of the Court of Appeal on the deadly fire in Mati was taken up with the defense lawyers’ speeches on the admissibility of the prosecution’s appeal against the first instance decision by the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Office.
The commemorative events
Meanwhile, in Mati today everything stops and everything revolves around the commemoration events of the sixth black anniversary planned by the Association of Relatives of the Deceased and Injured of 23/07/2018, “so that the crime” of that day is never forgotten, as it says. The eerie horror, the unspeakable pain, the fear, the grief, all come alive again.
At 9 this morning, a Memorial Service will be held at the Holy Church of St. John, in Neos Voutzas, and half an hour later, 30 Archpriestly Memorial Service at the Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, in Kokkino Limanaki, presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Nicholas of Messogaia.
The members of the Association, in a statement about the events, say that today “six years have passed since the greatest national tragedy in our country since World War II: The deadly fire that hit eastern Attica, plunging 5 settlements (Mati, Neos Voutzas, Kokkino Limanaki, Ampeloupoli and Provalinthos) and all of Greece into mourning” and “three months since the insulting for the memory of the victims and the pain of the burned people decision of the Court during the trial of the case in the first degree, as a misdemeanor and not as a felony”. They state their belief that they will be vindicated and call “to meet and walk again, in the places of martyrdom and on the road of fire.”
The program of events includes:
At 18:30, at the Memorial of the Victims in Neos Voutzas, a Trisagion will be held and the Invocation of our 104 dead will follow. Anyone who wishes may place a flower in their memory.
Then, the march of all, from the Monument, on the road of the fire, to the N.A.O.MA. in Mati.
At 20:00, the main event and the trisagion will be held at the Naval Athletic Club in Mati (N.A.O.MA.)
At 21:00, walking from the N.A.O.MA to the martyred Argyra Beach, 104 floating lanterns and flowers will be left in memory of the victims and white balloons for Evita and the 11 children who did not make it to adulthood. In Argyra Akti, at the union of the two municipalities of Marathon and Rafina-Pikermio, the event initiated by the daughter of a victim will also take place: 104 floating lanterns will be released into the sea: “to travel them in memory of the people who drowned, in memory of the people who waited in the water with their flesh burnt for a help that came too late, of the people who drowned by the water, of the people who never reached the water, of the people who were trapped and had no water”.
The Municipality of Marathon, in a statement, has asked the businesses “located in the area and especially in the places where events are held, as well as along the march from Neo Voutzas to the NE.O.MA and Argyra Akti, to participate in the mourning, if not by keeping their shops closed during the aforementioned hours, at least by maintaining the appropriate atmosphere of respect and quiet, as befits the memory of the unfortunate victims”. Some of them have already announced that they are participating in the mourning and will remain closed.
