Below is the announcement posted on the City's Facebook page regarding the July 26, 2025 fire.
THE ONLY TRUTH ABOUT THE GREAT FIRE OF LAST JULY
FACTS AND ANSWERS AGAINST POPULISM AND PETTINESS!
1. The O.T.A. act in a fully supportive and complementary manner to the work of the Fire Brigade, as according to article 1 par. 1 of Law 2612/1998 «the responsibility and operational planning of fire suppression in forests and forest areas in general is assigned to the Fire Brigade». Municipalities do NOT have the authority to put out fires, this is the sole responsibility of the PA! The role of the municipalities is subsidiary.
2. On 25-07-2025, i.e. one (1) day before the outbreak of the fire, the Mayor of Kythera informed by email all the relevant departments involved about a) the state of readiness of the civil protection mechanism of the Municipality, b) the need for additional reinforcement of the island with forces of the Civil Protection Mechanism (ground and air) for preventive reasons and c) its absence from Kythera from 25 to 29-07 for official reasons.
3. The Municipality of Kythera and all its services operated according to the plan during the two days of the fire on 26 and 27/07/2025 and for the immediately following period of time during which the incident was considered «open» by the MA. Indicatively: all of the Municipality's mechanical resources (fire trucks, water trucks, etc.), all of the available personnel (drivers, workers, etc.), certified volunteers as well as other volunteers and private project machinery mobilized from the outset to respond to the incident, operated continuously. Thanks to the organisation of the Municipality: (a) the protection of the infrastructure of the Municipal Fire Station and the entire fleet of municipal vehicles was achieved, even though the fire surrounded the site, b) the protection of the landfill site at the «Lachnos» location was achieved, as the Municipal Authority, in cooperation with the company that manages the site, had taken the precautionary measure of ensuring that the fire extinguishing system was fully operational and, above all, that the waste disposal cell was filled in, so that the fire did not enter the site, which would have completely destroyed an infrastructure costing more than 10 million euros.000.000 €, c) the damage to homes and infrastructure was minimal compared to the extent of the phenomenon (no primary residence was damaged), d) no human life was endangered as the 112 system was activated with repeated orders from the Peloponnese P.C.E. (the evacuation orders are given by the P.C.E. and not the Municipality).
4. All possible assistance to the Fire Brigade was generally provided.
5. The dispatch of Army project machinery was requested, which operated both during and after the incident.
6. There was an uninterrupted water supply from the municipal water supply system, even though at that time there were over 15,000 visitors to the island (permanent population 3,500) and the need for an adequate water supply was enormous. The filling of the fire engines was constant and without the slightest problem for at least 12 days during which the fire brigade operated in the burnt area.
7. The Municipality of Kythera has included in its Budget and Technical Programme 2025, the fire protection actions for the year 2025 in the total amount of 351.600,00€, which exceed by far the annual subsidy for fire protection actions of the Ministry of Interior (for 2025: 181.000€, no. decision of the Ministry of Interior 12856/11-03-2025, ID: ΨΠ9Y46ΜΤΛ6-ΞΨΡ) as follows for the island of Kythera:
KA 02.90.7135.0007, with an amount of 65.000,00€ and title «Supply of civil protection vehicles and means of civil protection». Purchased 2nd 500lt fire-fighting vehicle (Dakota): received 1 day before the fire (25-07).
KA 02.90.6233.0001, with an amount of 15.000,00€ and title «Hire of emergency project equipment (civil protection)»: active contract with an accounting payment (used on the basis of the needs arising and concerns all natural and weather phenomena and not only fires).
KA 02.90.7336.0008, in the amount of 25.000,00€ and entitled «Maintenance of civil protection vehicles»: carried out in stages based on the needs arising.
KA 02.30.7333.0085, in the amount of 37.200,00€ and title «Present cleaning of the road network»: not assigned as the Municipality purchased a relevant project machine which is operated by the competent Deputy Mayor in the absence of relevant staff.
KA 02.35.7333.0005, in the amount of 37.200,00€ and entitled «Opening and cleaning of forest fire safety zones»: in a contract. It is noted that this award does not concern the affected areas but the pure forest areas in Gerakari, Potamos and Ag. The area affected is, for the most part, rocky and covered by long vegetation, and a large part of it constitutes private property, within which the municipality cannot, as a matter of course, open up zones. It is further noted that this particular award was not made earlier due to the workload of the minimal staff available to the Municipality, making it impossible both to meet all kinds of deadlines and to maintain clear planning, an issue for which we have duly informed the Ministry of Interior with repeated letters, the last of which is the one with no. 2461/23-05-2024. In addition, it is noted that a similar assignment is carried out annually by the Municipality of Kythera, resulting in fire safety zones being cleared and opened throughout the island, tens of kilometres long in recent years, always under the supervision of Civil Protection and based on the hierarchy of the PC.
KA 02.35.7336.0001, in the amount of 10.000,00€ and entitled «Maintenance and repair of fire safety systems»: carried out in stages based on the needs arising.
KA 02.35.7425.0009, with an amount of 30.000,00€ and title «Tree pruning - deforestation»: completed.
KA 02.00.6495.0012, with an amount of 15.000,00€ and title «Supply of civil protection equipment and supplies»: completed.
KA 02.25.7336.0084, with an amount of 30.000,00€ and title «Repair of civil protection water reservoirs»: completed.
KA 02.30.7333.0105, in the amount of 37.200,00€ and title «Rural roads»: executed - active contract.
KA 02.35.6041.0001, in the amount of 30.000,00€. This code is intended to cover the cost of the salaries of fire-fighting staff recruited for a period of 5 months.
8. The IOLAOS plan that was forwarded to the relevant departments with our letter no.F1/20/2130/18-05-2022 is valid, without there being a need to change it as none of the data on fire safety issues of Kythera has changed or altered. Each service knows exactly its role and responsibilities (which were reaffirmed in the meeting of the TESOPP of 30-04-2025, ID: RICHZOLΨ-86Ψ) in case of an incident, without this meaning that the theoretical provisions of these plans are fully implemented, due to the great understaffing of the services involved (e.g. the Kythera station has only 2 operational vehicles and the officers use their private cars to carry out their duties!).
9. On 24-03-2025, the Municipality of Kythera - as it always does annually - requested an update from the DEDDEO on the control and maintenance actions of the above-ground distribution network to prevent fire risk. This is related to our letter No. 1003/24-03-2025 and the response of the DEDDEO No. 1822/09-05-2025.
10. After the meeting of the TESOPP on 30-04-2025 and based on what was stated in the meeting and especially the lack of staff of the relevant services that was emphatically emphasized, the Municipality of Kythera sent the following letters:
The letter No. 1679/02-05-20225 to the political and physical leadership of the Coast Guard.
The letter no. 1682/02-05-2025 to the political and physical leadership of the Hellenic Police.
The letter No. 3310/15-07-2025 to the Holy Metropolis of Kythera and Antikythera for taking fire safety measures in the areas under its responsibility (churches, cemeteries, etc.).
11. The Municipality of Kythera sent a letter (no. 769/12-03-2025) to EDSNA regarding the requirement for specific fire safety actions at the Kythera landfill site in the location «Lachnos», which were almost completely fulfilled.
12. With regard to Green Fund funding for the creation of fire safety zones, the following applies:
On 31-03-2025 the implementation of the action was extended until 31-05-2025 (ID: 91ΦΒΒ46Ψ844-Θ9).
On 16-05-2025 the Technical Report of the Fire Safety Zones for the Municipality of Kythera was approved by the Forestry Department of Piraeus (ID: Ψ34Ν4653Π8-SΡΕ).
On 20-05-2025, the Department of Technical Support of Island Municipalities of the Islands approved the study of fire protection reinforcement of residential areas of Kythera.
On 27-06-2025 this action was extended until 31-07-2025 (ID: 925A46Ψ844-0ΨK).
On 07-07-2025 our Municipality sent a documented letter to the Green Fund explaining in detail the reasons for requesting a new extension.
On 21-07-2025 this action was extended again until 30-09-2025 (ID: PΨ0Y46Ψ844-Z4Ζ).
On 30-07-2025 the Municipality of Kythera applied for an exceptional extension of this action until 30-05-2026, as a result of the emergency due to the fire, which was approved by the decision of the Green Fund (no. 6149/29-08-2025).
We also note that the work envisaged for this action includes the cleaning of 10 m wide zones exclusively by hand and not by mechanical means. For this reason, it was not possible to find a contractor. Furthermore, it is clear that the severity of the fire of 26 July, combined with the extremely severe fire and weather conditions of those days, could not be contained or stopped by zones with a width of only 10 metres, since, as the authorities have shown, no fire safety zone less than 100 metres wide can stop a fierce fire. In support of this, it should be pointed out that even the width of motorways is not sufficient to stop the natural phenomenon of spotting, which carries the fire front to a radius of tens or even hundreds of metres from its extremity.
13. Finally, our Municipality, in its letter No. 4149/27-08-2025 to the Peloponnese PEPYD, requested specific data on the management of the incident (total number of aerial means operated by the ENGAGE system, data of firefighting chiefs, data of mobilized firefighting units, etc.). The PA replied by letter No. 9448/F.702.15/18-09-2025, according to which the requested information has been included in a preliminary investigation file and falls under the special confidentiality of Article 241 of the CPC.
It should be noted that all the non-private forest, grassland and all types of land on the islands of Kythera and Antikythera is under the exclusive jurisdiction, management and protection of the NPO under the name of «The Commission for the Property of Kythera & Antikythera» in accordance with Article 84 of Law 1416/84 and PD 272/85, as applicable, as well as Art. 62 of Law 998/1979. The Commission, on behalf of the owner of the Domestic Property, which is the Municipality, has initiated a systematic judicial investigation into both the causes of the fire and possible coordination and operational shortcomings on the part of the competent ground and aerial fire fighting services.
The above is clarified in order to remove any kind of misinterpretation, misinformation and populism, especially on such a sensitive issue as civil protection, which is not suitable for cheap opposition and simplistic fantasies.
From the Municipality of Kythera
This is “The ONLY TRUTH”. A common and characteristic phrase of man which he usually completes with “PERFECT AND FULL”.
That makes sense. If you are so fortunate as to possess the only truth, you cannot tolerate questioning of the only truth, which you alone possess because, period, you are the Only Truth.
Of course, what we have read looks like a courtroom apology carefully written by a lawyer. It does not look like the only truth. It looks like we're saying, “it's not my fault, your honor.” But whatever it looks like to my eyes, the bottom line is that this is the only truth.