Court rules fire service failed to assess risk, awards compensation over Mati blaze

An Athens court has ruled that the state must pay 300,000 euros in emotional distress damages to the relatives of a 77-year-old woman who died in the eastern Attica wildfires on July 23, 2018, which claimed more than 100 lives.

Five relatives of the victim, a 77-year-old woman who died after leaving her home in the settlement of Neos Voutzas, had filed a lawsuit against the Greek state, the Regional Authority of Attica and the Municipality of Rafina-Pikermi, seeking compensation.

The Athens Administrative Court of First Instance ruled that the fire service had failed to adequately assess the dangers posed at the fire scene. The court also ruled that authorities were at fault for failing to issue an evacuation order for the area. The woman was only 40 meters away from her house when the fire caught up with her. 

The Administrative Court of First Instance in this case did not consider other issues that arose on the day in question. Indicatively, it did not consider whether there was any responsibility of the Traffic Police for the blockage of vehicles, or of other services, because they were not the subject of this case. The court was asked to consider what happened in a case which concerned the circumstances of the 77-year-old woman’s death. 

It was the first decision of an administrative court to award compensation for what happened four years ago.

“This is a first vindication for the relatives of the people who perished in this tragic fire, while the criminal trial is in full swing,” said lawyer Dimitrios Skyftas, who represented the relatives of the deceased in this lawsuit, along with his colleague Konstantinos Fousas.

Countering the lawsuit, the state’s lawyers argued that evacuation was not an appropriate or practical measure in this particular fire and that a possible attempt at “mass evacuation of the population would have been ineffective and dangerous, causing panic.”

The court, however, ruled that it was unlawful for the fire department to fail to recommend evacuation.

The state further claimed that had the 77-year-old victim not voluntarily left her home, which ultimately remained unharmed by the fire, she would have been safe.

However, the court noted that the victim’s action and her decision to flee her home as the flames approached was the expected one, “especially since she did not have sufficient information about the degree of danger to which she was exposed.”

At the same time, other relevant judgments are pending from class and individual actions filed by fire victims and relatives of victims of the Mati fire.