Filenews 6 August 2025
In an intensely emotionally charged atmosphere, the community leaders of the areas affected by the fire in mountainous Limassol submitted their own shocking testimonies about what they experienced at the joint meeting of the parliamentary committees on the Interior, Agriculture and Environment. At the same time, they also submitted their proposals, after their findings of gaps.
She was the first to share with the MPs what the community leader Malia experienced, from where the fire started. Marilena Athini thanked all the services and especially the Civil Defense for being "by our side from the beginning until today. He noted that the support and support of the state is necessary.
She referred to a statement made that the fire started at the point where there was an illegal garbage dump, noting that "we proved with photos that the fire did not start from there but from the main Malia-Arsos road".
Referring to the response of the various services, she said that "there was a delay, we experienced it", as the first fire trucks appeared in the village after the first houses had already been burned.
"The first to come and help in the evacuation of Malia and start extinguishing the fire was Michalis Mouskallis' team of the Civil Defense. If it weren't, we would be mourning a lot of people," he noted.
As he said, the Civil Defense arrived inside the village at 2.15pm, while the Fire Brigade arrived at 2.25pm. Asked about any aircraft they were operating, she said that two planes passed just before 3pm without making drops.
The head of the community of Lofou, Yiannos Neophytou, said that he is a volunteer member of the Civil Defense and an employee of the District Attorney's Office. That day he was an observer, as a volunteer of the Civil Defense and watched the fire with a camera and he himself was "the eyes" of the services at those hours, since he was talking to the Civil Defense, the Prefect, the Commissioner of Mountainous Areas.
When he saw that the fire was moving towards Lofou, "I immediately sent a message to the village, I talked to the priest and Mr. Constantinou about the camp to tell him to collect the children". He tried to go to the village, but was trapped outside it, he said.
"We almost burned," he said, mentioning that he managed to enter Lofou at 1 p.m., mentioning that he had been trapped by EAC stakes that had fallen. "I cut stakes and entered," he said.
He noted that members of the MMAD had come to rescue people who could not leave the village, mentioning, however, that they were from Nicosia and did not know the area.
Asked if he was informed by someone to proceed with the evacuation of the village, he said that he, as a volunteer of the Civil Defense, is part of the evacuation plan. "The mobile phone was playing all the time. The Director of Civil Defence in Limassol also picked me up (to inform about the evacuation) but I told him that I had already done it, because I spoke to the Commissioner," he pointed out.
Asked about the evacuation of the children's camp, he said that he was in consultation with the President of the Parents' Confederation, Loizos Constantinou. "He took me himself, I told him that the fire is in Vasa, not in Lofou. When I saw with the camera (that he was going to Lofou) I called him and told him to find a way to get the babies away. The father took the initiative and began to take the babies to the village fork. The babies were all gone when I sent the message. They were removed I think around 6pm. Everything was fine with the children, when the first house in the village was burning," he said.
He called for the implementation of the Government's announcements and for the issue of compensation for arbitrary accidents to be reconsidered.
The mayor of the community in Pano Kividas, Konstantinos Papatheodorou, said that when he saw that the fire was advancing towards Vouni, he went to help. "When I went to Vouni I saw tankers filling with water from drilling and fire trucks, it had a lot. I don't know how long it took. When we saw Vouni burning, it was like a tornado, the fire flew away, it surrounded us. They could only go to the burnt ones (the fire trucks). Pillars fell, we were trapped," he said.
When he managed to escape, he sent the first evacuation message for the Cubides. However, he said, while the plan was for the fans to head towards the stadium, "I saw that I was going to kill them from the smoke and I sent a second message for the fans to leave, by my own decision".
As he said, "I may have made the most difficult decision of my life" when he saw the next day that Souni was burned. "We could burn them inside the cars if they had a car stopped," he said. As he said, the Civil Defense notified him to evacuate the village, after he had already done so.
"We were told that the coordination committee would be set up in the stadium. When I came to the community I didn't find anyone, because the fire was approaching the community. So they knew, why didn't they notify us?" he asked.
Mattheos Protopapas, President of the Vouni Community Council, said that the village is full of narrow streets and no firefighters enter. "Volunteer firefighters, with self-sacrifice, extinguished the fires and burned only the first houses," he said.
He noted that the council asked for fire "nests". "They told us it's expensive," he said, noting that the hole burned and they didn't have a generator to operate.
"Our party is our communities," said the mayor of Vasa Koilaniou, Michalis Mosfilis, asking those present to be united in order to bring a positive result.
He noted that the first to arrive at the incidents are the community councils. He said that when he learned about the fire, "in 5 minutes I went to the Council, I went to the first point to prevent the fire. By the time I go, the fire from the primary school of Malia entered the first houses of Vasa. I said we will be burned alive," he said. Then, he said, the fire "came behind us. We went crawling, we escaped."
The mayor of Koilani, Kyriakos Kyriakou, said that when he saw the fire, it "was holding a large area and height and was coming quickly".
"I gave the order to evacuate my village. I spoke with the mayor of Trimiklini. He told me that he had opened the elementary school so that people could go there. From the Civil Defense they told me to evacuate Koilani quickly. I told them I saw him coming. They told me to take them to Kivia. I told them we were going to burn, I saw the fire coming and I hung up the phone," he said, noting that the instructions of the Civil Defense were for the evacuation to be done in the direction the fire was going.
He added that the forestry department cannot operate in houses, "it is not trained. We only had forest firefighters, they couldn't extinguish the houses. This must change," he said, adding that "we want all the residents of our village to be compensated. 100-year-old plane trees were burned, Koilani will not be the same again," he said.
Nikos Vikis, community leader of Sounion, pointed out that 90 houses out of the 1500 in the village were burned, noting that the village had been cleaned. He himself, he said, when he came to the Parliament, he wanted to see "something united. We are at war. I didn't see that, I have concerns. We had to be helped, people lost their homes," he said.
From the community council of Alassa, a spokesman said that the Ministry of the Interior responded on July 21 negatively to a letter from the council for a 50% sponsorship for the purchase of a small fire truck. "We asked the district governor to subsidize us to do firefighting. Negative answer. We did it ourselves at the expense of the village," he said. Regarding the evacuation, he said that they had received a message from the Civil Defense that they were ready. "Before the Civil Defense came, we had collected it and evacuated it," he added.
The mayor of Agios Georgios, Municipality of Evangelos, said that the front of the fire was spread over 5 km, with a wind that constantly changed directions.
For the evacuation of the village, he said, they rang the bell. "It was a mess," he said. "We informed the residents, we put people next to the elderly and when we got a call from the police officer in Lania for evacuation, we rang the bell. It was the best act we did," he said.
From the community council of Agios Ambrosios, Stelios Grigoriou said that they ran to help with the fire. "We had no meaning for our villages, because it was going upwards," he pointed out. In Agios Ephraim, the Praetorian Center had been set up and the President and Deputies were there. "We did not see Saint Ambrose in danger. In a fraction of a second, police from Nicosia told me to drive people to Lofou to evacuate. By the time we went to Lofou, Agios Therapon had a fire. I went back. In Agios Ambrosios, the coordination center disappeared. We were surrounded by fire," he said.
Simos Constantinou, a community leader of Potami, said that he had been watching the fire from the first minutes. In 20 minutes, he said, it could not be controlled. "He went to the river, it was humanly impossible to control. The services were close to us. The Civil Defence, the volunteers, the Police" went from house to house and moved the elderly, operated on and transferred them to Pachna. "On the way, they rescued a woman who was terrified and blocked the road with her car," he said.
Ilia Herodotou, community leader in Pera Pedi, although her community was not affected, asked for the sponsorship given by 80% for fire trucks, if it can be done 100% "so that we can protect mountainous areas that are the only green left".
The mayor of Pachna, Andreas Savvas, said that he was abroad when the fire occurred. He was, however, in communication with everyone and as President of the community complex he talked to the other community leaders about where the fire was.
"We prepared the hall that would accommodate the residents of Malia and Potami," he said, noting that when the fire reached 200 meters outside the community, they made the decision to evacuate the first houses. "They went to the regional medical center that had a generator for about 50 people," he said, visibly moved.
The mayor of Moniatis and President of the Troodos complex, Charalambos Konstantinidis, said that he sent a letter to the Parliament "with things that must be done immediately in order to save Troodos". As he said, everyone must understand that Troodos was only miraculously spared, noting that if the Forestry Department had not stopped the fire, it would have reached Pedoulas.
"I received a phone call from an employee of the complex that her children are trapped in Vasa. I called Mouskallis, asked for help. He told me he was there, he ran to rescue the family. I got the community leader to tell me what was happening. He told me I want help. We ran. Unfortunately when we arrived at the spot it was late. We entered the village, we extinguished. We offered everything we could to help," he said.
As he said, in the letter he sent to the Parliament, he records nine suggestions, the most basic of which is to make a strategic plan on how to deal with the fire in the Troodos area. He also pointed out that it is unacceptable that the Saitta fence is full of mud and not water. "A helicopter tried to get water, it took once and stopped. The dams must be cleaned, they must be taken over by the Water Department, which has the knowledge to maintain them," he said.
The President of the Limassol Union of Communities, Lefteris Pericles, said that communities cannot make fire zones on private land. "If the road is not registered, we cannot put money, the Auditor General will tell us that we are wasting public money and cleaning private crossings," he said.
As far as garbage dumps are concerned, he pointed out the need to restore a field guard.
Finally, the Mayor of Kouri, Pantelis Georgiou, said that "I evacuated Vounaros on my own. We have created fire protection zones around the perimeter."
In relation to the evacuations, he referred to a 10.5 km queue formed by vehicles waiting to leave. "I went out and told the officer to go one-way all the way. The fire was behind them and we would be mourning more victims in half an hour," he said. In addition, he said that the schools that were opened to accommodate people did not have the basics inside. "We brought beds of the sea. There were no sheets, no pillows," he said.
He spoke of a lack of coordination, mentioning, for example, that on the second night 250 firefighters were left without food and water, "because there was no coordination on who would get what".
He also said that regular training is needed so that the Fire Service and the Forestry Department can both act in the areas of competence of the other. He noted that if the fire reached the industrial Ypsona "we would mourn 60-80,000 victims due to toxic chemicals".
He also proposed the creation of a squad for environmental crime. "The Department of the Environment is out of court and they are attacked by people at night," he complained.
He also proposed the creation of civil protection departments in local authorities, pointing out the need to equip them with firefighting equipment.
CNA
