In the absence of state assistance in Mati, he spoke today in his plea to the appellate court for the deadly fire, in July 2018, the former mayor of Rafina-Pikermio, Evangelos Bournous.

“75 city volunteers more than employees were on the front line. On the other side, there were wrong police instructions to the citizens, the coast guard was delayed, wrong assessments and lack of information from the fire department,” the accused former mayor claimed to point out elsewhere in his plea: “I stand before you today with accusations that do not fit me and my character. Every day that passes I think about whether I could have done something different even for my family. The answer is that I should have done more for my family. If I could, I would have ten fire trucks instead of five. The lack of dispatching forces is the cause of the disaster. When you’re late, these are the results. (…) I stand before you fully aware that I did my duty in full, both before, during, and after. I request that you release me from the set of charges. The self-governing should not be the self-immolators of this state. Local government cannot be in the dock every time because someone else is wrong.”

“I consider myself a victim and a defendant”

Earlier, he had described himself as a victim of the disaster and with tears in his eyes expressed his sorrow for the dead and injured.

“I consider myself a victim and at the same time a defendant. My house was burnt down and my wife was burnt and her gains stayed in the sea for five hours and came out with the rest. They stayed underwater most of the time and came out alive. They just held on. On that day I bore the burden of the mayor’s position,” the former mayor said, blaming the state mechanism again, saying, “There was no state mechanism to prevent the disaster in the birth, the loss of lives, property, to protect the psyche of all those who lived through the disaster and carry it, there is also the emotional loss of memories and elements that connected the past with the future. There is not a photo left of the relatives who have passed on. There are also those things that cannot be valued in material things.”

Regarding the readiness of the municipality of Rafina-Pikermio on that day, the accused said: “We had a stage 4 danger level, the municipality was at a high level of preparedness, in whatever online medium there were updates posted. There had been a dispersal of the six fire trucks we had. There was full staffing at the civil defense center.”

Elsewhere in his apology, Mr Burnous reiterated that there was no fire department. “The main fire-fighting force was ours,” he said, to then argue, “The fire department never came until late at night. The fire brigade didn’t come until late night, the fire brigade didn’t come until late night. Because I didn’t know how the fire would develop, I turned to the other mayors because our two water trucks would not be sufficient, I did it at that time without any information.”

Finally, the accused was also questioned by the bench about the statements he had made to a television station on the day of the fire, stating that the fire would not go towards Mati. “When I said that there will be no problem at a low level (I am talking about where I am in Kallitehnoupoli), I always talk about a piece of my own,” the accused said and claimed that his information came from the fire brigade and the police.

“My impression from the direction of the wind is that (the fire) would have been scraped by the municipality. When the wind changed the game was lost but I couldn’t have known that. I always talked to what the officials told me,” he said.