Filenews 2 August 2025 - by Fanis Markidis
The reports of the competent services that were forwarded to the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, as of yesterday, are considered important in terms of answering specific issues. These were raised through facts and testimonies. We list some of the most important ones:
>> The time the fire broke out
Testimonies given to press officials place the outbreak of the fire even before 01:00 noon on July 23. The next day, the picture was not clear. The Fire Service spokesman said on Thursday that the fire broke out around 1:20 p.m. This was followed by official positions by the chief fire chief of the Fire Department, Nikos Longinos and the Department of Forests, who spoke of a notification by a citizen at 13:28. The issue that arises also concerns the technological means available to competent services for the timely detection of fires.
>> People didn't see aircraft
According to the official position of the Fire Service, as it was transferred to "F", the "TORCH 2" plan, which comes into force when they need to operate more than five aircraft, was activated at 13:50 (National Guard involvement).
However, testimonies from those affected speak of the absence of aircraft from the hot fronts. There are testimonies accompanied by visual material and record an image around 16:00, revealing that there was no presence of aerial means of forest firefighting in areas where the flames burned everything. The first water drops with flying vehicles took place at 14:20, while according to an official position we received from the Fire Service at 15:00, 8 aircraft were already operating. We countered both the Forestry Department and the Fire Brigade with the testimonies that they were not visible, but we were told that the front was huge. There are also questions about the time he was involved in the operation of dropping water by the National Guard.
>> Cooperation between the Fire Brigade and the Forestry Department
The issue of cooperation between firefighters (Fire Service) and forest firefighters (Department of Forests) was raised. Assurances were given that they attempted and cooperated under the instructions of the operational head.
>> There were no rescue operations
It is inferred from official statements that there was a decision not to carry out asset rescue operations, so as not to endanger human lives. Characteristic are the testimonies from Souni, where houses were burning, but members of the Fire Service (the communities were under their area of responsibility) were inside a fire truck idle.
>> Complaints about slow reflexes of the Civil Defense
Testimonies indicate that the Civil Defense did not intervene in time in several cases. The well-known complaint about the case of Lofou is characteristic, where minors were evacuated, who participated in a camp in the area, without activating an organized plan by the Civil Defense, but thanks to the personal actions of members of the community.
>> Clean-ups by communities and preventive forest firefighting measures
Officials have told us by name in the past few days that the local authorities of affected communities have not done enough to clean up areas within their jurisdiction in order to take fire protection measures. They also talked about a budget of €1 million. that was allocated, but -obviously- remained unused. The Minister of the Interior, Konstantinos Ioannou, speaking as a political leader, said that there is a legislative gap and that his Ministry has no other means than recommendations to enforce compliance with this obligation.
>> Police assistance
The Police were operational ready from the very first moment. However, the issue was raised about the handling of an incident related to the death of the two elderly people. The issue was raised by the mayor of Sylikos, Nikos Arestis. He had explained that after instructions for the evacuation of the village, the couple, instead of leaving the Trimiklini road, mistakenly used the Platra – Limassol road. He added that while the Police had taken measures to prevent drivers from passing from Limassol to Platres, they did not do the same in the opposite direction. According to our information, the scenario for this parameter is clarified in the Cyprus Police Events Report.