Greek authorities draw criticism over handling of wildfires
Greek officials say there is no longer an active firefront threatening the capital. As residents of Athens' suburbs return to their burned-out homes, many are criticizing the authorities' response to the disaster as inadequate.
Transcript
00:00Two days after the devastating wildfires outside of the Greek capital Athens, the severity
00:06of the destruction is becoming clear.
00:08I am in the Athenian suburb of Vrilisia, one of the most affected areas where dozens of
00:16houses and businesses burned down to the ground.
00:19The scenery a complete devastation.
00:21The flames transformed the landscape literally into a wasteland.
00:25The ground is covered by a thick layer of ash and there is a very strong smell of smoke
00:31and burned wood.
00:34This woman's house was damaged by the flames.
00:39She was at work when she got the message to evacuate.
00:43She says she rushed home to pick up her parents and left.
00:47Now she's back to see the extent of the damage and take care of her dog, which she unleashed
00:52before evacuating.
00:55One of her two dogs is still missing.
00:59We packed, left straight away and picked up people who didn't have a car.
01:05Within an hour the flames scorched the house.
01:10It's the first time I've seen it up close in all the years I've been here.
01:13The first time it's gotten this far.
01:17Fire crews continue to look for hotspots.
01:22A few minutes down the road from where a woman's body was found, Stefanos Kasselakis,
01:28the opposition leader of the Syriza party, comes to assess the situation.
01:36If the response that you are seeing here is to be dubbed adequate, then I don't know what
01:44inadequate would look like.
01:45I want to clarify that the people on the front lines are true heroes in my book.
01:53We are counting on them and we are grateful to them.
01:57But they are understaffed.
01:59A lot of them work only seasonally and they don't have adequate equipment.
02:05And it's not just politicians criticizing the response.
02:09This home's owners say nobody came to their aid.
02:13There was no water tanker, no fire engine, nobody to drench the place so that it could
02:17be saved, or at least not completely destroyed.
02:20To build such a house takes a lifetime of work.
02:22The house is completely destroyed.
02:26The family says they're still waiting for official word on what to do next.