Rescue crews comb seaside towns including Mati, where families have been left devastated by the human cost of disaster

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

As the death toll from Greece’s worst forest fires continued to climb, survivors at Athens’ biggest hospital described the terror and anguish wrought by one of the country’s most devastating blazes in modern times.

While rescue crews combed through the disaster zone on Wednesday, the sheer scale of the disaster – which has left at least 81 people dead, more than 180 injured and dozens more missing – began to dawn on those who survived.

How the fires in Mati, Greece, spread – a visual guide Read more

“The pain, the pain ... We all have pain – but no one will ever know this,” sighed Maria Dionysioti, 67.

In just 48 hours, Dionysioti had lost her infant grandson, two of her cousins, their children and all of her worldly possessions; meanwhile, her daughter Margarita was left fighting for her life.

“My grandson was six-months-old, he hadn’t even been baptised. He died in Margarita’s arms and now she is in intensive care,” she said, surrounded by relatives and friends at Evangelismos hospital. “We found them both in the sea about five hours after the fires descended on Mati.”

Barely 48 hours have elapsed since blazes propelled by gale-force winds tore through seaside communities close to the capital, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them.

No place was more affected than Mati, a resort village of less than 2,000 some 25km (16 miles) east of Athens.

Play Video 0:34 Greek wildfires: drone footage shows extent of devastation – video

“God doesn’t give us the words to describe such things,” said Dionysioti, who survived the disaster because she was visiting doctors in Athens with her husband.

“My house has burned down, my daughter’s house has also been reduced to cinders but, really, that is nothing,” she continued, waving a tiny black fan across her face.

“The daughter of my cousin, Grigoris, was the 13-year-old girl who jumped off a cliff. My other cousin, Michalis, perished in his car with his wife and daughter. Several members of my [extended] family are missing. You tell me: are there words to convey this? Can the human soul take in such things?”

The horror unleashed by fires – described on Wednesday as the second most deadly to hit any country this century – will take years to overcome, officials say. But Greeks reacted to the disaster with poise and resilience.

In the face of such tragedy the nation has once again rallied in a massive show of solidarity.

“I am issuing an appeal,” said Vangelis Bournous, the mayor of Rafina-Pikermi, the port town nearest to the affected areas. “Please stop sending food and medicine and clothes. We have so many we are overwhelmed and soon won’t know what to do with them.”

As Greece began three days of mourning – declared by the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, on Tuesday – emergency services reported being inundated with calls for missing persons.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A charm depicting Jesus Christ is seen in the ashes of a house in Mati. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Although no official number has – as yet – been released, Ilias Psinakis, the mayor of Marathon, said there was no doubt the number of victims would rise.

“Unfortunately the number is increasing,” he told Ant 1 TV. “I think they found another five today, 40 people [in all] were missing by 5 o’clock this morning when I left the Town Hall.”

Municipal authorities said that at least two thirds of the houses in the Marathon district, with includes Mati, were gutted, with many now resembling blackened shells.

“Of the 1,900 houses in Mati and the 1,100 in Neo Voutzas, two thirds must have burned,” said Psinakis. “They are houses that are no longer inhabitable.”

The fires had been fanned by gale force winds of up to 124 km an hour and “changing direction on a minute-by-minute basis,” which has made rescue operations particularly difficult, said Constantine Michalos who heads the Athens Chamber of commerce and industry.

“The area can only be compared to Syria on a day of heavy bombardment,” he told Irish RTE radio after visiting Mati.

There were mounting fears that the death toll would continue to grow – surpassing by far those recorded when wildfires decimated large tracts of the western Peloponnese peninsula in 2007.

A total of 63 people perished in that disaster.

“How can it be that in such a small town so many people perish?” asked a doctor who lives in Mati during an interview on ERT TV. “Something has gone very wrong.”

It is still unknown what caused the inferno although arson is suspected. Several residents said they had been unable to afford municipal skips and other equipment to clear properties of brushwood and cones that in the summer months are prone to transforming forested areas into tinderboxes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The remains of house destroyed by wildfire in Mati. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

“This is the Greece of austerity,” said Cleopatra Fotopoulou, who had gone to Evangelismos to support Dionysioti. “I know so many who have pressing financial problems and couldn’t afford to keep their properties clean and I suspect that is why they went up.”

Fotopoulou, a former graphic designer, said she belonged to a group of neighbourhood friends who each night watched out for forest fires in her own village, not far away, which had miraculously survived the latest fires.

Rescue efforts are expected to continue for several days with four firefighting aircraft from Italy and 64 firefighters from Cyprus joining operations.

The leftist-led government announced that €20m (£17.8m) in emergency funding would be distributed to stricken areas.

Irishman on honeymoon killed in Greek wildfires Read more

On Wednesday, the Greek parliament said a further €10m would be given to those who had lost homes and loved ones in the fires.

“This is part of the self-evident support and solidarity for the hundreds of fellow citizens who have been affected by this unspeakable disaster,” said Nikos Voutsis, speaker of the house.

The government is facing mounting criticism over its handling of the rescue operation with residents claiming that no emergency plan was put into effect when the fires tore through the seaside resorts.

Play Video 1:44 Greece fires: state of emergency declared as deadly blazes rage – video

“We were left to burn like mice,” one woman resident told SKAI TV on Wednesday.

“There was no coordination. Nobody gave us any directions, people were burning in their cars three metres from the sea as they were trying to flee. They weren’t interested in saving their homes,” she said, standing outside the charred remains of her home.

She described being separated from her children for seven hours and being saved only when she rushed into the sea.

“We were in the sea, we were burning in the sea, people were fainting around us ... I was screaming trying to find my children. There are tens of stories like this. There was no reason for us to burn.”