As fire victims named, their stories emerge
As an investigation deepens into the causes of last month’s catastrophic wildfires in Attica, an official list naming 91 victims was made public on Thursday even as the death toll rose to 93 after a 78-year-old burns victim died in the hospital.
Ninety-one of the victims were identified by name while DNA samples have been taken from the other two but no relatives have come forward.
The list includes the names of 45 women, 35 men and 11 children including a 6-month-old infant, the youngest victim of the blazes whose firefighter father was on duty on the night of the fires and also lost his wife in the disaster. Twin 9-year-old sisters and their grandparents are also among those named.
The oldest victim was a 93-year-old woman.
The list includes the names of two Polish nationals, Beate-Teresa Korzeniowska, 40, and her 9-year-old son, Kacper-Nikolaj, who drowned. It also names Irishman Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp, who had been on his honeymoon in Mati with his wife, who survived.
A 64-year-old Belgian man, Dirk Bonte, also drowned in his attempt to escape the flames by boat while his son survived.
The dead included 13 families while dozens more families survived the blazes but saw their homes destroyed.
Many residents of the affected areas want to see a memorial set up for those who died, Kathimerini has learned.
Meanwhile a judicial probe aimed at apportioning blame for last month’s wildfires continued on Thursday, with members of the fire service who were on duty on July 23 visiting Athens first instance prosecutor Ilias Zagoraios and his deputy Varvara Gnesouli.
The revelations by Kathimerini earlier this week of discrepancies between evidence from the fire service’s electronic archives and the testimonies of some fire service officers are expected to prompt a new strand in the ongoing judicial investigation.
Zagoraios’s intent, according to sources, is to question as many witnesses as possible over the next 10 days with the aim of summoning the first suspects by the end of the month.
The same prosecutor is spearheading a parallel probe, at the request of Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, into illegal construction in coastal areas and forestland after it emerged that most of the properties in Mati, the settlement in eastern Attica that was hardest hit in the fires, had been illegally built.
The list of named victims (with parents' names in parenthesis) is as follows:
- Dimitrios-Aristidis Alexopoulos (Anastasios and Adriani), b. 2005
- Emila Androulidaki (Evangelos and Kassiani), b. 1945
- Zoi Athanasopoulou (Giorgos and Styliani), b. 1932
- Ekaterini Avramidou (Nikolaos and Garyfallia), b. 1971
- Dirk Bonte (Hendrik and Mariette), b. 1954, Belgium
- Styliani Christofidou (Stavros and Athina), b. 1959
- Thekla Desypri (Ioannis and Maria), b. 1957
- (unnamed infant) Dimitriou (Andreas and Margarita), b. 23 January 2018
- Margarita Dionysioti (Haralambos and Maria), aged 56
- Nikoleta Doutsa (Gavaki) (Ioannis and Angela), b. 1972
- Panagiotis Doxas (Argyrios and Marianthi), b. 1998
- Argyrios Doxas (Panagiotis and Ourania), b. 1958
- Haralambos Drouvis (Christos and Eleni), b. 1945
- Filippos Filippopoulos (Ioannis and Eleni), b. 1946
- Sofia Filippopoulou (Ioannis and Spyridoula), b. 1957
- Sofia Filippopoulou (Ioannis and Georgia), b. 2009
- Vasiliki Filippopoulou (Ioannis and Georgia), b. 2009
- Andreas Fytros (Grigorios and Varvara), b. 2007
- Grigorios Fytros (Andreas and Evdokia), b. 1964
- Evdokia Fytrou (Grigorios and Varvara)
- Maria Galani (Konstantinos and Irini), b. 1977
- Panagiota Gazepidou-Gazepi (Athanasios and Maria), b. 1964
- Panagiotis Hamilothoris (Evangelos and Panagiotis), b. 1989
- Nikolaos Hatzopoulos (Christos and Stella), b. 1934
- Evpraxia Herouveim (Aristeidis and Vasiliki), b. 1944
- Maria-Iliana Herouveim (Vassiliki), b. 2013
- Vasiliki Herouveim (Stylianos and Evpraxia), b. 1965
- Evpraxia-Melina Herouveim , b. 2013
- Spyridon Kakaris (Konstantinos and Katerina), b. 1978
- Maria Kalapanida (Ioannis and Athanasia), b. 1933
- Marianthi Kalapanida (Evangelou and Maria)
- Nikolaos Kaleyiannakos (Ioannis and Adriani), b. 1933
- Ioannis Kaleyiannakos (Nikolaos and Paraskevi), b. 1967
- Paraskevi Kaleyiannakou (Vasileios and Velouda), b. 1944
- Smaragda Kandalepa (Epaminondas and Domna), aged 85
- Garyfallia Karagiaouri (Fotios and Maria), b. 1952
- Athina Karali (Michail and Anastasia), b. 1970
- Vasilios Katsargyris
- Markos Katsoulakis (Polydoros and Niki), b. 1975
- Polydoros-Paris Katsoulakis (Markos and Katerina), b. 1998
- Konstantinos Kertsos (Thomas and Maria), aged 83
- Ioannis Kladios (Aristidis and Chrysoula), b. 1934
- Iakovos Kladios (Ioannis and Maria), b. 1971
- Maria Kladiou (Nikolaos and Stamatina), b. 1937
- Panagiotis Kokkinidis (Giorgos and Pipina), b. 1979
- Georgios Kokkinidis (Panagiotis and Kassiani), b. 2010
- Dimitrios Kokkinidis (Panagiotis and Kassiani), b. 2013
- Pipina Kokkinidou , aged about 67
- Marianthi Konstantaki (Andreas and Angeliki), b. 1933
- Beata-Teresa Korzeniowska (Wincenty and Barbara), b. 1980, Poland
- Kacper-Nikolaj Korzeniowski (Jaroslaw and Beata-Teresa), b. 2009, Poland
- Nikolas Kossoras (Dimitrios and Evmorfia), b. 1950
- Vasileia Kostopoulou (Evangelos and Georgia), b. 1967
- Maria Koukla-Polychronidou (Giorgos and Sofia), b. 1947
- Christos Kouklas (Ioannis and Vasiliki), b. 1941
- Michail Labridis (Vasilios and Maria), b. 1945
- Angeliki Mascha (Stylianos and Kalliopi), b. 1933
- Angelos Maschas (Panagiotis and Marika), b. 1930
- Vasileia Mavridou (Nikolaos and Evangelia), b. 1959
- Viktoras Michas (Giorgos and Athina), b. 1993
- Aspasia Moraiti (Konstantinos and Eleni), b. 1927
- Maria Moshou (Michail and Elizabet), aged 56
- Katina Nitsotoli (Dimitrios and Marouda), b. 1952
- Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp (Denis and Mary), b. 1972, Ireland
- Kostoula Orfanou (Dimitrios and Dimitra), b. 1936
- Maria Pagomenou (Konstantinos and Olga), b. 1945
- Vasiliki Palioura (Minas and Maria), b. 1945
- Ioannis Papaioannou (Giorgos and Artemis), b. 1957
- Spyridon Papapostolou (Athanasios and Eleni), b. 1935
- Moira Patelarou (Dimitrios and Ioanna), b. 1931
- Evangeli Petala (Thomas and Agora), b. 1943
- Dionysios Petalas (Vasileios and Maria), b. 1929
- Leonidas Plymakis (Iosif and Maria), b. 1943
- Evgenia Politou (Grigorious and Kassiani), b. 1941
- Michail Polyportis (Ioannis and Dimitra), b. 1952
- Eleni Sarieva (Nikiforos and Nina), b. 1962
- Evangelia Siapera (Leonidas and Maria), b. 1941
- Kalliopi Siapkara (Angelos and Eleni), b. 1983
- Eleni Sideri (Periklis and Olga), b. 1925
- Zabeta Skaramaga (Nikolaos and Fotini), b. 1941
- Dimitrios Skaramagas (Emmanouil and Irini), b. 1932
- Kassiani Spanou (Dimitrios and Evangelia), b. 1978
- Chrysi Spilioti (Giorgos and Katerina), b. 1956
- Dimitrios Tournavitis (Michail and Irini-Magdalini), b. 1964
- Pavlos Tsarbos (Kyriakos and Paraskevi), b. 1958
- Viktor Tsekos (Pantelis and Magdalini), b. 1959
- Efthymios Vonikopoulos (Theodoros and Sofia), b. 1963
- Sofia Yianakopoulou (Konstantinos and Sevastia), b. 1932
- Angeliki Yiannopoulou (Panagiotis and Chrysanthi), b. 1930
- Efstratios Zafeiriou (Theodoros and Domna), aged 85