Porto Germeno: 40 of 82 homes deemed beyond repair

Inspections in Porto Germeno are concluding on Thursday August 6, as announced by Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Kostas Katsafados, and initial findings put the scale of destruction in numbers rather than pictures. Of the 82 homes inspected, 40 were deemed beyond repair — that is, nearly one in two properties that passed through the engineers’ assessment cannot be repaired and must be demolished. This is one of the first concrete damage figures following the fire that broke out in late July in Boeotia and spread to Western Attica, incinerating entire settlements near the Corinthian shoreline.

The assessments are being conducted by seven teams of the Directorate for Recovery from Natural Disasters Effects, which record damage not only to residences but to businesses and other property, from warehouses and farm facilities to vehicles and networks. Each building is assessed for structural adequacy after exposure to high temperatures and classified into a category that determines whether it is repairable, temporarily unsuitable or beyond repair. The process does not stop in Porto Germeno: it continues in other affected areas, so a unified picture can be formed of the entire burned zone and property owners are not left out of the record because they were not home at the time of inspection. The initial inspections and housing assistance procedure had begun a few days earlier, aiming to cover all declared losses.

For a homeowner, the classification of a building as beyond repair is not a technical detail. It determines what form of state assistance they are entitled to, from rent subsidies and household item assistance to housing assistance for complete reconstruction, and essentially determines whether the family will return home in months or years. Residents in Porto Germeno and Psatha returned to their properties and found destroyed homes, burned vehicles and businesses that cannot open in mid-tourist season. In coastal settlements that live mainly from the two summer months, the loss of the season is a second blow on top of the first.

These are the same areas for which special stimulus programs were announced: the tourist ‘pass’ and the ‘My Business Support’ program, which are part of the five relief measures for fire victims. The question now is synchronization: inspections produce the data, but payment of assistance requires issuance of relevant statutory instruments, which as of the morning of Thursday August 6 had not been published. No overall tally of buildings beyond repair for the entire affected zone has been announced, as teams continue working in the field. The final number will only emerge once assessment is complete in the remaining settlements of Western Attica and neighboring Boeotia.