“We started the investigation without a video of the freight train loading,” Christos Papadimitriou, president of EODASAM, told ERTNews. Speaking about the investigation into the Tempi rail tragedy and the role of the body, he said the organisation “should have existed since 2004 and was created in 2023“.

Commenting on the publication which was published yesterday, a day before the two-year anniversary of the two train collision, he said that “we don’t know how many people died in the fire” while regarding the presence of unknown fuel that caused the fireball, he replied that any traces disappeared due to high temperatures, noting that “through simulation we concluded that there were 2.5 tonnes of flammable liquid“.

At the same time Papadimitriou spoke of a “mess” that prevailed at the scene of the rail tragedy, saying that many mistakes were made even by the prosecutors who were at the scene.

As he said, “in the first moments there were no protocols, there was confusion between the fire and police. The first concern was to save people,” then noting that “on March 3, everything went wrong in the field, in terms of data collection.” He said “two or three days after the accident we were not sure how many people were on the train.”

Referring to the investigations and the cause of death of the occupants, he said that “even if one person died from the fire, we had to investigate“.

Speaking to reporters Kostas Papachlimintzos and Katerina Doukas, the president of the National Organization for the Investigation of Air and Railway Accidents and Transport Safety said that “through simulation we concluded that there were 2.5 tons of flammable liquid.” As Papadimitriou said, “from the videos I see a different color of smoke, white from black, so it’s a different fuel, plus from the traces on the ground I see a different fuel, plus a critical opinion that came to us from Professor Kostantopoulos, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, who told us that in all likelihood silicone oils could not have led to this fire.”

Asked where the unknown flammable substance could possibly have been placed, Papadimitriou said “it should have been between the second engine and the first open wagon that had the steel plates“. In response to the question of why nothing was found he stressed: “No remains were found. The experts’ answer is that if there had been something like that and if it had burned at those temperatures, no remains would have been found.”

Elsewhere in his statement, the president of the EODASAM referred to the infamous 717 contract, saying that “if the 717 contract had been completed, there would have been more safeguards.”

According to Papadimitriou, the investigation is open. “We did our job as if our children were on the train,” he said.

Speaking about the mistakes made on February 28, 2023 he said: “That night, even the ergonomics of the station was wrong. In the evening, the station master was alone and even answered residents’ calls.“