Greek authorities draw criticism over handling of wildfires

DW (English)

Greek officials say there is no longer an active firefront threatening the capital. As residents of Athens' suburbs return to their burned-out homes, many are criticizing the authorities' response to the disaster as inadequate.

Transcript

00:00Two days after the devastating wildfires outside of the Greek capital Athens, the severity

00:06of the destruction is becoming clear.

00:08I am in the Athenian suburb of Vrilisia, one of the most affected areas where dozens of

00:16houses and businesses burned down to the ground.

00:19The scenery a complete devastation.

00:21The flames transformed the landscape literally into a wasteland.

00:25The ground is covered by a thick layer of ash and there is a very strong smell of smoke

00:31and burned wood.

00:34This woman's house was damaged by the flames.

00:39She was at work when she got the message to evacuate.

00:43She says she rushed home to pick up her parents and left.

00:47Now she's back to see the extent of the damage and take care of her dog, which she unleashed

00:52before evacuating.

00:55One of her two dogs is still missing.

00:59We packed, left straight away and picked up people who didn't have a car.

01:05Within an hour the flames scorched the house.

01:10It's the first time I've seen it up close in all the years I've been here.

01:13The first time it's gotten this far.

01:17Fire crews continue to look for hotspots.

01:22A few minutes down the road from where a woman's body was found, Stefanos Kasselakis,

01:28the opposition leader of the Syriza party, comes to assess the situation.

01:36If the response that you are seeing here is to be dubbed adequate, then I don't know what

01:44inadequate would look like.

01:45I want to clarify that the people on the front lines are true heroes in my book.

01:53We are counting on them and we are grateful to them.

01:57But they are understaffed.

01:59A lot of them work only seasonally and they don't have adequate equipment.

02:05And it's not just politicians criticizing the response.

02:09This home's owners say nobody came to their aid.

02:13There was no water tanker, no fire engine, nobody to drench the place so that it could

02:17be saved, or at least not completely destroyed.

02:20To build such a house takes a lifetime of work.

02:22The house is completely destroyed.

02:26The family says they're still waiting for official word on what to do next.

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