I thought I’d never escape Greek inferno, says Briton
TWO Britons told last night of their miracle escape from the devastating Greek wildfires.
Susan Stephos fled as flames engulfed her house while Chhaganlal Jagatia was rescued from a smouldering hotel after remaining to tend an elderly relative.
Speaking from her hospital bed, expat Mrs Stephos, still wearing an oxygen mask as she struggled to breathe, described how she ran through the flames to escape on Monday night.
To her heartbreak, her dog Maia ran in a different direction and she had to leave her behind as the inferno raged around Mati, a resort 25 miles east of Athens.
‘When I was in the house and the fire was going over, I thought I am not going to make it, this is the end,’ Mrs Stephos told the BBC. ‘But prayers were answered. And I managed.’
She was ‘very grateful’ to have survived, she said.
Mr Jagatia, 76, from Egham, Surrey, was left with burns to his hands and legs after he stayed in his hotel in Mati to protect a 95-year-old relative. From his hospital bed in Athens, he told the Mail: ‘The fire started approaching us at 5pm and I could see it in the distance.’
Mr Jagatia was on holiday with his wife, their son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter, and the daughter -mat, in-law’s grandmother Smaragpi Kandalepa. ‘All the other houses I could see were on fire, but not the hotel,’ he said. ‘I asked [the rest of the family] to go away because everything was falling on us. I could not possibly go out because the old lady could not walk.’
As his wife ran to the sea with their one-year-old granddaughter Stefania, he stayed with Mrs Kandalepa, applying wet towels around her as the building began heating up and smoke started to choke them. They were finally rescued at 10.45pm. The rest of the family spent three hours in the sea as they waited to be evacuated to safety.
Mr Jagatia was continuing to recover last night but Mrs Kandalepa was in an induced coma. Mr Jagatia’s son Jay said: ‘What my dad did was heroic.’ Last night the death toll from the wildfires, which also devastated an area 30 miles west of Athens, reached 85 – with 100 still missing.
Families began returning to the charred remains of their homes in the tight-knit, middle-class Greek community, describing the scenes as ‘hell on earth’.
Scores of Red Cross volunteers handed out water, food and medicines to the homeless. In neighbouring Rafina, the town hall and gymnasium were transformed into aid centres.
Student Sotiris Capodistrias, 18, told how his mother, father and two brothers fled their flat above a mini-supermarket where a worker died in the blaze.
As he assessed the damage with his father Christo, a Greek diplo- he said: ‘We we heard screaming, which surprised us because we were told, “Don’t worry, there is no danger, the fires are under control”. But the fire came here within one hour and we had no idea until we smelt it.
‘We saw people running and screaming everywhere.
‘There is a small road that leads to the back and on to the beach and used that to escape and we were running. We knew though that if we stood in the water we wouldn’t be able to breathe from the ash, so we continued to run.’
Staring at the burnt-out remains of his home he added: ‘There was a woman here who burnt to death in the mini-mart. She couldn’t make it out. I’ve been living here my whole life, I was born here, my friends are here and it feels like my whole life has been changed. I have lost more than five friends who died in the fire.’
His father said: ‘This has always been a privileged area for summer vacations because it’s so close to Athens and has beautiful surroundings. It has always been green, lush and beautiful. There is a strong community of families here. Now it is unrecognisable.’
Mary Pazaskevopoulou, 58, returned to find the community cafe she owned had been reduced to charred walls and cinders.
She said: ‘This was a place where the community gathered. Now it’s destroyed. It’s unbelievable. But I actually consider myself very lucky compared to those that have died. My husband and I were inside and we’re lucky to have got away. But we’re going to have to start again. There is no other solution.’
Firemen told how they had never seen such a devastating blaze as winds of up to 68mph fanned the wildfires, spreading them across an area of around five miles by seven miles around Mati on the Attica peninsula.
Four people aged 22 to 26 were being questioned yesterday on suspicion of looting abandoned homes. There is no suggestion they started the fires and no one has been arrested on suspicion of arson, which was initially being considered as a cause.
Last night Theresa May hailed the bravery of the Greek emergency services as she sent condolences and pledged support.