Fire-hit town issues appeal to speed up restoration

In an open letter made public over the weekend, residents of Mati, the coastal settlement in East Attica that was ravaged by disastrous forest fires in the summer of last year, complained that works to restore the area are moving at a slow pace, meaning that many will be obliged to spend a second winter in temporary accommodation.

The residents’ committee took issue with delays in the issuing of permits for the demolition of burned homes deemed to be structurally unsound and for the renovation of homes that sustained less serious damage in the July 2018 blaze.

The catastrophic fire led to the deaths of 103 people and wreaked massive damage to forestland in the area.

In March of this year, prosecutors brought criminal charges of negligent arson and manslaughter against 20 current and former state officials and in September judicial officials underlined the need for the probe into the causes of the disaster to be accelerated.