Seven years passed yesterday since the deadly fire of July 23, 2018, which swept through Mati and left behind 104 dead and an indelible tragedy. Relatives of the victims honored their memory by leaving red balloons in the sky as they read their names, while they also brought lanterns, which they left on the Argyra Coast.

They also gave out orange banners and left their flowers on the beach.
The events began at the Victims’ Memorial in Neo Voutzas, in front of St. John’s, where hundreds of local people were present. There, a trisagion was first held, an invocation for the dead was performed and a “deafening” two-minute silence was observed in memory of the dead. Immediately afterwards, everyone left a flower in front of the monument. From the church of Agios Ioannis, the great procession started to the N.A.O.M.A. (Nautical Sports Club of Attica) in Mati.

Relatives read the names of the deceased on the beach and released red balloons and made lanterns which they put into the sea.

“We don’t forget the eyes that didn’t have time to close.”

A victim’s relative paid tribute to the people who perished in the firestorm: “Smoke-choked, burnt in their homes, on the streets, in their cars, on the beach, in the sea. 57 burned. We do not forget. We do not forget the faces, we do not forget the voices that were lost, the bodies left on the asphalt, the eyes that did not have time to close. We don’t forget the pain and the daily suffering that remains engraved on the bodies and souls of ‘all of us. Nor do we forget the silence that followed on the part of the state. Because what we lived, experienced, remembered, was not a bad moment; it was the lack of the Greek state.”

The fire

The 2018 fire, which started in Penteli and was magnified by extreme winds, burned homes, forests and, above all, human lives in a matter of hours. The speed of the fire, combined with many other factors, trapped thousands of residents and holidaymakers. Many lost their lives in their homes, in their cars, or trying to reach the sea to save themselves. The images of the “terror plot”, where 26 charred people were found huddled together, remain etched in collective memory as the cruelest symbol of the tragedy.

Seven years later, the area still bears the scars of the fiery conflagration. Despite reconstruction efforts and tree planting, the landscape remains scarred. For residents and relatives of the victims, time has not eased the pain, nor has it erased questions of responsibility.

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The memorial service to the victims of the massacre was held at the site of the memorial and a memorial service was held at the memorial site on the site of the memorial.