‘We’ve never seen such destruction’ Cypriot fire team returns from Greece (Updated)

By Lizzy Ioannidou

The 64-member Cypriot mission sent to Athens to support efforts in the extinguishing of the Attica wildfires returned to the island at around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night, after experienced what they described as a “biblical disaster”.

Having lived through an unprecedented experience in their professional career, the team was transported back to Cyprus with a C130 military aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force, after completing their mission in the events that have until now taken 83 lives and injured more than 190.

The team, composed of 20 persons from the Forestry Department, 20 from the Civil Defence, 20 from the Fire Service and 4 from the Ambulance Service, travelled to Athens on 24 July, the second day of the fire when people were trying to find a way to return to normalcy, and the fires were under partial control.

The C130 returned 45 people and two fire trucks that had been transported to the Greek capital while the remaining 19 arrived in Cyprus with private airlines.

Petros Petrou, director of the Forestry Department, said that “it was with great effort that we managed to accomplish the task assigned to us,” but added that the firefighters did not face any risk because the team sent to Greece to help was experienced.

Petrou added that the team headed straight for the forest “to offer as much help to our colleagues from Greece”.

Leonidas Leonidou, deputy chief of the Cyprus Fire Service said that “the destruction we saw is enormous, it’s a biblical disaster, that took place in just 2-3 hours when the fire destroyed everything,” he said.

Chrysilios Chrysiliou Director of the Larnaka Civil Defence, said that “we will need many days, weeks, months or even years to overcome what we have experienced there.

Chief of the Cyprus Fire Service, Markos Traggolas, said that the Service will continue its efforts in Cyprus to make people more aware of the dangers fires pose and help them adopt some measures to protect themselves until the fire brigades arrive.

Aid efforts are still ongoing in Cyprus nevertheless. The government deposited €10m in a special account to help the effort for reconstruction, while large amounts have similarly been contributed by other Cypriot donors, the most recent of which is a €50,000 contribution by Shacolas Group. The government has appealed to people and businesses to add to this amount, which will be allocated to special projects.

Cyprus has also contributed significantly to the collection of material basic essentials. One thousand boxes will be handed over on Saturday to the Coordinating Centre of the Attica Region from where they will be distributed, said the Commissioner for Volunteering and Non-Governmental Organisations, Yannis Yiannaki. Food and medicine will also be sent in addition to the 1,000 boxes.

Yiannaki added that “there are Cypriots who can and want to host children and families for a while. There are many such requests.”

However, he noted that this cannot be done without the approval of the Greek authorities.