Penteli Mayor Dimitris Stergiou has charged that there was a total lack of operational control in the first, critical hours of the deadly 23 July fires.
He also said that it was apparent from the start that the fire would head towards the sea.
Stergiou said that information that has been revealed about the Mati fire “shows a total loss of control on the operational field”.
For example, at 18:07 on 23 July, the General Secretary of Civil Protection sent a fax to the Attica Prefecture requesting back-ups in the area of Dioni, and not Mati.
Stergiou offered damning criticism of how the fire was handled in the beginning. “I heard what they were saying. From the first moment – I was at the area where the fire started within three minutes – I stated that the fire would go down to the sea. The direction of the fire presaged what was going to happen,” Stergiou said.
“One can only laugh at the fact that they were saying that the fire would head toward Dioni and Dionysos,” the mayor said.
“Everything exhibits the organisation and operation of a system that has diachronically displayed that there is no coordination or communication between the services involved in the field of operations,” Stergiou said
