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O n Tuesday, the devastation was complete. Much of Mati – the seaside resort at the center of the worst forest fires that hit Greece in more than a decade – was over.
In hell, he had been rendered lifeless; its streets were transformed into ash carpets, its buildings blackened, its cars turned into steel carcbades, some piled on top of each other, a testimony of the terror that a few hours earlier Monday had seized the community. Gale force winds had fanned flames as high as walls and engulfed the village.
And then there were the dead. At noon, an official toll of 60 dead was announced, but with lifeguards going door-to-door and car bodies to car, there were certainly more.
What many hoped would be the best escape the flames and smoke – the sea – had become the road to death. Nikos Stavrinidis, one of more than 700 to be rescued by a flotilla of coastguard vessels, fishing boats and private boats, told how the winds had badped up the flames and badped up. up to the sea, disorienting those who rushed into the ocean while there was no other place to go. "It's terrible to see the person next to you drowning and not being able to help," he said, describing how he and a group of friends spent two hours to struggle to stay afloat.
Before the disaster struck, it was the sound of the wind – louder than a roar and everyone – that sounded the alarm. "It happened so fast, the fire was in the distance, then the sparks of fire reached us, so the fire was around us," he said. "The wind was indescribable – it was unbelievable."
While Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, declared three days of mourning – and that firefighting planes were flying overhead – disbelief still weighed heavily in putrid air of Mati. The locals were sitting outside the buildings, many in shorts and ash-covered T-shirts, holding their heads in their hands or aimlessly looking away.
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