The images of Kythera and especially Mylopotamos still haunt the residents. The independent councillor Nikolaos Magoulas describes how the 112 evacuation «plan» led people to the dead end of Limniona, leaving the village unprotected in the flames. In the same vein, the actor Emilios Cheilakis, who was found himself being rescued from the beach, directly accuses the civil protection of turning a tool into an abandonment mechanism: «It's nice to evacuate, but where is the responsibility for the properties?».
Their testimonies reveal the naked truth: a state that statistically saves lives, but leaves villages and property to go up in flames. And the question comes back urgently - how much «better» does civil protection get each year when residents feel abandoned?;
Read his report below Vangelis Valavanis published in the electronic version of the Document.
«We evacuate with 112 and property is burned that will never be burned again»
Testimonies from the fires in Chios, Kythira, Patras and Keratea deconstruct the government's civil protection plan.
«Mistakes are made every year. Every year we learn lessons and that's why I tell you, year after year, I think civil protection is getting better in the country.’ So said (Open, 26/08/2025) the Minister of Climate Crisis Yannis Kefalogiannis in his first statement after the firestorm of early August, when Chios, western Achaia, Preveza, Zakynthos and Kythera were burned down. It is faithfully following the doctrine first stated in 2020 by Kyriakos Mitsotakis while visiting the Hermit of Corfu that »the forest will eventually burn«. But now they are also letting residential areas turn to ashes, which are saved because citizens are left behind.
For the minister, the «cash» of this year's fire season will be at the end of the fire season (31/10). It is a wonder how the government is getting better while letting the fires go out to sea. The answer is simple: it entertains impressions with hollow words on the burnt, without even looking at the mistakes it has made. What is reported in Documento from four different regions should be taken into account for the fire season «fund», because this year again the staff state got below the bottom line in terms of protecting property and forests. During the days of Kefalogiannis alone 454,850 acres have been burnt to ashes and for this no mayor or Patreon Kostas Peletidis is responsible.
The actor explains in a few lines how inferior the state mechanism appeared to be to the fiery circumstances Emilios Cheilakis, who lives in Mylopotamos of Kythera and was among the citizens who were rescued from the beach of Limniona: «It's a problem how a civil protection tool (ed: 112) with its misuse turns out like the Peter and the Wolf story. In the policy of “evacuation”, they leave out the obligation to protect property. People will be left behind to save their properties. That's where the victims are. It's nice to evacuate a village, but not one fire truck went through Milopotamos which is a central village. Not that the firefighting guys didn't want to, but they didn't have the strength. The ground forces outdid themselves, so we rightly call them heroes. But when you evacuate, you send in the resources to put it out. You don't evacuate like that until it stops at sea. Those who had cleared their properties helped keep the fire from spreading. Talk about personal political responsibility, of course, we did what we had to do, but why did you guys leave us at the mercy of God? It was a clear misjudgment of the civil protection. Not the fire department getting orders to get airborne to another fire. The fact of the matter is that the coordinating committee was making bad decisions all the time.’.
«112 was sending us to burning areas»
In Chios, Patras and Kythera, 112 was sending continuous messages to the population calling for evacuation through burning areas. A typical example is Limnia in northern Chios, where the fire stopped at the sea.
The absolute chaos is described to Documento by Arietta Daouti, a resident of the island: «Everywhere you turned your eye there was fire and everything was burning. We were constantly receiving messages to evacuate areas and we were sent to areas that we had instructions to evacuate earlier. At one point it became very confusing. We were calling each other to ask which ring road 112 was saying. It sent a lot of people towards the Lakes, which after a few hours were burnt to the sea. The coastguard and private individuals intervened to get people out.».
The complete disorganization and the absence of a plan from the civil protection of Chios complains Sotiris Theodorou, owner of a restaurant in Limnia, which by chance was not burned: «112 is a ridiculousness that together with the civil protection of the municipality told us to evacuate to other places that were already burning. A typical example is what happened in Limnias, where I have my shop. The 112 was called and the police with the civil protection were shouting go to Managros. By the time they were sent to Managros, they all went to burn because there was already a fire there. No maps or plan, the civil protection with absolutely nothing went up to northwest Chios. People could have been burned by criminal negligence».
«We decided not to evacuate»
The scene was the same in Patras, where the fire reached the urban fabric of the municipality. Anastasios Arvanitis, a resident of the settlement of Dragolena and former secretary of the Bala Cultural Association, describes the confusion with 112 and how, after the elderly and children were evacuated, the organized volunteer groups of the area, with few firefighters, fought the flames: «What shows the non-existence of the state is that 112 was sending people from Voudeni to Patras through the Sychaina road, which was burning. We as an association took the initiative to guide people to go to Velvitsi by going around the circle to avoid the fire. However, the police officers were leading people to the other road. If 112 was operating in a serious, organized manner and we knew someone would be left behind in the firefighting effort, we would have left. But when we are told to evacuate without a fire truck even arriving and leave everything like that, no, we can't. The first vehicle came an hour after 112, we decided a group of residents to go to the village square and not evacuate, because it seemed that a fire truck would not save the village in any case.’.
The evacuation to the beach of Limniona in Kythera led to a dead end for the citizens, as Documento Nikolaos Magoulas, independent councillor and resident of Mylopotamos: «112 only worked to get people out and they were driven down to the beach of Limniona, which does not even have a jetty to board a speedboat. 112 was late to send a signal and they were evacuated in another direction inland. It sent them to a dead end. The grown men could not board when the nearest speedboat was at one and a half meters depth. There was no organization to stop the fire in our village, Mylopotamos. They burned all the Aryans and what was left from 2017 or had sprouted again. In 2017 people stopped it along with the fire department. Now they have taken it away and driven it to Limniona leaving the village unprotected.».
Anna Livaditou, a pensioner and resident of the settlement of Dimoulaki in Keratea, describes her agony for what she left behind that by chance did not burn: «It was a hell of heat and thick smoke. I locked up, got wet and left because a neighbour called out to me. There was a big panic with the constant 112. I couldn't leave like that. There are residents sleeping with relatives because their houses burned down. You stay because you hope to save a life's work. After us, five other settlements were burnt down.».
The unequal battle with the flames and the «after»
The account is tragic. Houses, pastures and livestock were burnt to the ground and are not being «rebuilt» or rebuilt as the government insists. «What has been announced so far is ridiculous» says S. Theodorou from Chios and continues: «For us restaurant professionals they have announced aid for the 70% of things that have been burnt down. It does not foresee either how we will live through the winter or how we will be compensated for the season we lost, even based on the turnover we had last year. Let's at least get these. Nor pay rent or vendors.».
The livestock industry of Chios, which is mainly free grazing, has been hit hard, as explained by Ar. Daouti, legal advisor of the Association of Pastors of Chios: «We have lost a lot of livestock according to the registration of the Association of Shepherds of Chios. The fires of 21 June and 12 August destroyed many pastures and sheepfolds. We need land. Without them, the animals need twice as much fodder as they did before the disaster. These costs cannot be met by the farmers alone. It is a duty in a welfare state to help people in dire need. About 7,000-8,000 animals and more have been left without land. The industry is sending out an SOS for its existence.».
They stayed behind and saved what they could
Those who were left behind fought for altars and hearths. Organized, together with the fire brigade, they stopped the fiery flames just before they destroyed the labors of a lifetime.
The critical hours he lived in Mylopotamos are described by N. Magoulas: «The fire had started at Aroniadika and Mylopotamos is about seven to ten kilometres away in a straight line. We did not imagine that the fire would reach that far down. We were not allowed by the ELAS to enter the village. I invoked my status and we were told that the area had been cordoned off. After a ruckus I passed with three other people, we were the first to enter the village. Houses were burned, about 14 were counted by the echelons, and the big school of Mylopotamos was burned. It's the first time in the history of the island that it's gone through a village. There were not even firebreaks, even though a lot of money has been spent. We put out fires in houses that would have burned down if we hadn't. A fire engine never came to the village.
At the second blockade we found going to Milopotamos we saw a fire truck leaving. All this happened at 18.00-18.30, the air had stopped at 15.00. If they'd kept going, the fire wouldn't have reached Milopotamos. At Drimonas it was stopped by the volunteers and helped by the aerials.». The effort of the residents in the Bala area of Patras was also shocking, as narrated by An. Arvanitis: «With buckets and farm machinery we entered the yards, we chained them and those who could not get in front helped by giving water and digging. The police tried to stop us at first, but afterwards they helped the overgrounders and those who could not operate to leave. We told them that we were not leaving. My house was saved because the fire was stopped within ten metres. It was put out by the Canadair by proper timing. If we had listened to 112, not only Voudeni or Dragolena would have burned, but all the villages.
