Maria and Kostas Lambroukos are two of the Mati wildfires survivors.
“Kids and babies lost their lives. We saw burned bodies outside our own home,” Kostas Lambroukos a resident of Mati who survived the wildfires, told SBS Greek.
Greek authorities haven't given an account of exactly how many people are still missing after the devastating wildfires that have killed at least 86 people.
Mr. Lambroukos, an economist working for a private medical devices supply company, described that they (he and his wife, Maria) were lucky to escape and he says that “although there was no evacuation plan in place the rage of the fire was immense and the strong winds were pushing towards them with great speed”.
“Situations like this are hard to control, however, there was a lack of coordination. The authorities (firefighters and police) were asking people to move towards the beach and not towards big streets like Marathon Avenue,” said Mr. Lambroukos.
“The road next to the beach is narrow. No more than three meters wide. It barely fits two cars next to each other. This is so many people got trapped,”, the 57-year-old Lambroukos told SBS Greek.
Rescue workers and volunteers are still working tirelessly to find missing people in the area of Mati.
“They (rescue workers) were looking for a missing woman, they went in and out her house more than 5 times as they could not locate her. They finally found her. Her body was still and burned like a tree trunk. It was impossible to recognize it,” Mr. Lambroukos told SBS Greek.
“Our homes, we can build again. It’s the friends we lost that we are going to miss the most” he said.
His wife, Maria Lambroukos, also a wildfire survivor describes the tragic scenes. “The fog was thick. You couldn’t see anything in front of you. We couldn’t approach our 16-year-old son, Giorgos and a friend looked after him,” describes 48-year-old mother.
“We are grateful to the volunteers who came to help. They were the first to arrive,” says Maria Lambroukou.
“Our house is burnt. We have no clothes to wear like many other people in the area of Mati. We sleep in homes of people in neighboring areas like Nea Makri,” describes Maria Lambroukou
Greece's public order minister continued to defend authorities' response to Monday's blaze. Minister Nikos Toskas told state broadcaster ERT it was impossible to evacuate the area's 15,000 people in the 90 minutes that Monday's blaze roared through the area.
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