Calls made for probe into fatal wildfire to be upgraded

Two retired officers of the Greek fire service and navy have called for a higher level of handling in the probe into the east Attica wildfire that claimed nearly 100 lives on July 23.

In a letter to Citizens’ Protection Minister Olga Gerovasili, retired fire lieutenant Andrianos Gourbatsis called for a sworn administrative inquiry into the “oversights and criminal mistakes” of the General Secretariat for Civil Protection, the fire service, the police, the Attica Regional Authority and all the municipal authorities involved that led to such a significant loss of life.

“Your continued failure to order a sworn inquiry conceals a deliberate cover-up attempt,” said Gourbatsis, who is working as a consultant for two families that suffered losses in the fire.

Claiming the “blatant inaction and omissions of the authorities,” ex-naval officer Panagiotis Stamatis meanwhile called on the Council of Appeals Court Judges to assign the probe to a special investigator.