In his work which – as he said – brought the Municipality of Marathon back into the limelight “after 490 BC,” he spoke at length today during his plea at the appellate jury for the deadly fire in Mati, the then mayor of the Lias Psinakis area.

“My whole involvement with the municipality started completely by accident. An old lady fainted from hunger and I came into contact with this dramatic side. I chose to run for mayor of Marathon because I was living there and this area, which has an international brand name, was completely untapped,” Psinakis said, going on to argue that when he took over the municipality he received “scorched earth.”

“I didn’t foresee one thing. When we took over from the previous mayor, we found everything empty. I went to the judiciary, the police the independent authorities and we started to build services from scratch. I did all this because I wanted to, I did not need to make money. On the contrary, I would say,” the then mayor of Marathon said to add: “Marathon was heard with the work we did. It hadn’t been heard since 490 BC.”

Mr. Psinakis went on to say that on the day of the deadly fire he was absent on leave. “I was informed by my secretary very early. Within the municipality we have the former American base. The fire department is also housed inside. It is a place with many, many structures. We had made sure that there was an organized space there for every occasion. As soon as I heard about the fire I was looking to leave by helicopter, but flights were prohibited. I found an inflatable boat, which was provided by a friendly family and its captain. It had a five-barrel engine. However, we couldn’t, I arrived the next morning,” Psinakis said, noting that “2,500 people arrived at the base within half an hour in their swimsuits.” There, he said, everyone “had everything, food, water, and even psychological support.”

Psinakis also claimed that the Municipality of Marathon was always clean and that the plots of land were being cleaned. “We did clean-ups, prunin,g and sent owners to clean their plots. There were fenced, very few, which by law at the time you couldn’t break in and go in and pick up the branches. The unfortunate thing about this area is that it has pine trees, it’s forested and you can’t do anything unless you get permission from the Forestry Department. You don’t touch a pine tree,” he said.

Judge: Did your police officer call the fire department and say your house was on fire?

Defendant: I left police officers when I left. My mother couldn’t find me and called my police officer. Mom didn’t know there was a fire everywhere. My policeman called the fire department and informed them that there was a fire in the house, and they told him that the whole area is on fire here and he shut it down.

Judge: Did you have a drill as part of an operational plan involving civilians?

Defendant: City employees participated with citizen volunteers.

Judge: If you had a base area why didn’t you think earlier to call the police to report it so that these people could be driven there in a coordinated bus service?

Defendant: Marathon was now closed. Who would risk taking people? Take him where?

Judge: At 18.00 the situation was now difficult. Why was it not decided at that time, without a recommendation, to take people there?

Defendant: The City has a supporting role. If the Fire Department has not given a recommendation, the Fire Department cannot take people. Two municipalities were involved now, the decision was in the District if the Fire Department made the recommendation.

“I can’t describe to you what we saw”

This was followed by the apology of the then deputy mayor of cleaning and civil protection of Marathon, Vaios Thanasia, who described the actions of the municipality in response to the fires.

“Updates were made on clean-ups. The green department was working double shifts. Supervisors were working around the clock. We had delivered 1146 tons of material by July 2018 from collections, cleanups, etc. We had carried out pruning of pillars etc.,” this accused said and at another point, in his plea, he said: “On that day, the civil defence official was at the call centre. All of us, throughout the entire time we were at our posts. Everything we had was available wherever we were asked. Our forest firefighters were in the field (…) We were not given any information to inform people and the intensity of the fire. We were coordinated and on standby.”

Only two plots in the municipality had not been cleared because their owners were not found, then described the picture he saw when he arrived at Mati.

“We went by coach to Mati. I can’t describe what we saw. Burning wires, ashes everywhere, people running around frantically. We still didn’t know or imagine that there were dead people. (…)” he said: “In the following days and for many years we hosted people in our camps. We found people without a house and until another one was built or rehabilitated, we provided shelter and rations. From one moment to the next people were on the street, and people were taken from life. I found myself accused, I found myself and my family in dire straits and I want to ask you to exonerate me because I did everything I could that day.