Today the presentation of Marina Karyda’s book about the fire in Mati: “I lived the destruction minute by minute”

Six years later. What exactly happened on July 23, 2018 in Mati? What are the causes for the devastating effect of deadly fire? Marina Karyda has gathered in her book “Eye of July 23, 2018”, which is published by Papadopoulos publications, all the evidence available in order to understand what happened that July, how in just two and a half hours we had so many dead. “It was the second biggest tragedy in the number of victims worldwide, there were dozens of dead, injured and burned in just two and a half hours. It is a major event, which defined the history of our country”, said the prosecutor in his speech at the much-lauded trial for Mati, capturing an event that will remain unforgettable in Greek society.

M. Karyda’s book is presented today at 18.00, at the bookstore “Ianos” (24 Stadiou, tel. 2103217917). Tasos Teloglou, Maria Katsounaki, the author and Tasos Athanasopoulos, who will give his personal testimony, will speak. Antonis Fourlis will be the moderator.

“I lived the disaster minute by minute and became very close to those who survived, leaving behind an unprecedented number of dead,” says Marina Karyda to APE-MPE on the occasion of the publication of the book and tonight’s discussion. “The press expressed their pain, even their disgust, for the Eye, but what we need, almost six years later, is the justice of those who were lost. And justification can only come if we shed light on the causes that caused the loss. Only in this way will the victims – dead and survivors – have a united voice”, observes the author, explaining the reasons that led her to write.

The book is the product of systematic research and as Marina Karyda notes, its pages “include over fifty personal testimonies, the report of the expert, the indictment and the apologies in the trial”. It is a comprehensive record of the events surrounding the second deadliest fire of the 21st century. The author cites the facts, testimonies and information about the destruction in Mati, avoiding on the one hand dramatization, which does not contribute to a cool understanding, while maintaining, on the other hand, the feeling that comes from personal experience. In this way, he also speaks as an eyewitness of history. “The victims and their testimonies, together with mine, the statements of the politicians, the judicial documents feed a chronicle of the Eye, which starts from the first minutes of the fire to arrive at a collective depiction of the events”, he explains the author.

Marina Karyda was born in 1966 in Larissa, living half the year in Mati. She studied Dentistry and worked in the private sector, which she left to devote herself to raising her three children. It supported from 2018-2020 the burn victims of the fire in Mati. To a question about the activity regarding what happened in Mati and about the struggle to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future, he answered: “I considered it necessary to provide voluntary support and to find solutions that would prevent future deaths and destruction of homes and property . We collaborated with the Ministry of Health to establish a special legal framework and to create a Burn Registry. Two laws were promoted for burn victims, first for those burned by fire and then for those burned from other causes” Since 2021, the author is a co-founder of the Salvia Burn Association, the only organization for burn and burn victims in Greece, with a founding donor of Foundation I.S. Latsis, which also contributed financially to dealing with the consequences of the disaster.

RES