Burglars targeted homes and businesses that suffered damage from the fire in Attica.
As reported by Star, a business owner saw a burglar stealing items from the yard via a security camera and immediately called for police assistance. The man was identified, and a case was filed against him.
“They cut the wires from top to bottom and opened it. They went inside to steal iron, copper, and many other things. They come to loot instead of helping,” said a resident to the same outlet.
“On the first day of the fire, as soon as we took two things to leave, I saw two people climbing onto the balcony,” noted another victim.
“Many Roma are coming now that the houses are abandoned, and they have left nothing. They go inside the houses and ruin everything,” said another resident of the affected areas.
One arrest for looting in the affected areas – “We went to help”
Police have already arrested a 46-year-old Roma on Mylo Potamou Street in Penteli, who was stealing whatever he could from a burned house, and there have been 17 detentions as well.
According to the same information, such incidents have been recorded across all fire-hit areas.
Meanwhile, on the day when the fire was still burning, four Roma arrived by taxi in the northern suburbs and began to wander around the houses. However, police spotted them and detained them. When asked why they went by taxi to the fire area, the four detainees stated: “We went to help, not to steal, officer.”
104 unsuitable homes identified so far in the fire-affected areas of Attica
Since Tuesday (13/8), teams from the General Directorate for the Restoration of Natural Disaster Effects (GDANDE) of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection have been conducting daily inspections and assessments of building infrastructures in areas of Northern and Eastern Attica following the fires on August 11.
Specifically, the GDANDE teams were activated under the guidance of the General Secretariat for Natural Disaster Restoration and State Aid, with over 60 engineers, and inspections were carried out in eight municipalities of Attica, having completed most of the inspection work, which will continue in the coming days in communication and coordination with the property owners and municipalities in the area.
In particular, the inspections by the GDANDE teams took place in fire-affected areas of the municipalities of Vrilissia, Dionysos, Marathon, Pallini, Penteli, Rafina-Pikermi, Chalandri, and Oropos, in a context of close cooperation with the municipalities, as the visits and inspections are based on guidance and information from the local government officials.
So far, 184 inspections have been conducted in buildings in the aforementioned eight municipalities of Attica, of which 158 were in residential buildings, 21 in warehouses, 2 in public buildings, and 3 in commercial spaces.
From these inspections, it has been determined that 104 residences are classified as unsuitable for use and must be demolished (“red”) and temporarily unsuitable for use requiring repair work (“yellow”), with the distribution in the two categories being 40 and 64, respectively. Additionally, 54 residences are classified as suitable for use (“green”), with some possibly having minor damages.
The inspections will continue from the GDANDE teams in the coming days in Attica, in a context of close cooperation with the municipalities, which are gathering requests from citizens.
Finally, regarding the work of the State Aid Committees of the Region of Attica, which are also on the field conducting inspections of businesses, 30 cases of businesses affected by the fire have been recorded so far.