The scenes that unfolded on Sunday afternoon (June 28) in the Kallithea neighborhood of Athens were both harrowing and deeply moving. A fire broke out in a two-story home while its elderly residents were still inside. Dimitris Agakechagias, one of the first bystanders to rush to help, recounts what happened to tanea.gr: “I didn’t think about anything in that moment, not even my own life. The only thing I cared about was helping.”
He was part of a small group of ordinary people who formed a human chain to save the 75-year-old woman who jumped from her balcony to escape the flames.
Within seconds, the house on Agion Panton Street had become a fiery trap. Smoke was choking everything around it, the flames were spreading with terrifying speed, and the two elderly residents were fighting to survive. And then, a handful of ordinary people decided to do what most would be afraid to do, and became heroes.
“Grandma, Jump! We’ll Catch You, Don’t Be Scared!”
Dimitris Agakechagias, a construction worker who had just finished his shift and was heading home on his motorbike, stopped without a second thought. Together with two other young men, one of whom was later hospitalized with injuries, he ran toward the burning apartment.
“We did what needed to be done. Everything you saw lasted just seconds. I live in the neighborhood and had just come back from work. I’m a construction worker, not a delivery driver as some reports have said. I arrived on my motorbike and saw the smoke.”
Covering their faces with a shirt to manage the smoke, they entered the burning building, broke down the back door, and managed to get the 75-year-old’s husband out.
But the nightmare was not over.
“The fire spread everywhere in seconds, to every room, upstairs and downstairs, as if someone had poured gasoline inside. The grandmother wasn’t on the balcony at first; we were looking for her husband. We broke down the back door and he managed to get out that way, and he told us his wife was still inside. That’s when we saw her on the upper-floor balcony and I shouted, ‘Grandma, jump! We’ll catch you, don’t be scared!’ There were five or six of us on the ground.”
Neighbors and passersby stretched out their arms, and the elderly woman jumped to safety.
“She was in a panic and was having breathing difficulties, so the ambulance took her right away. I only spoke with her husband; we tried to calm him down because he was very shaken. Today I watched the videos and I am overwhelmed by what happened. I would do this for anyone, we are all human beings. I am Pontic Greek, originally from the Soviet Union. Today it’s your neighbor’s house on fire; tomorrow it could be yours. In that moment, I didn’t think about anything, not even my own life. I wanted to help. If a person had burned to death in front of my eyes, I would never have forgiven myself.”
Agakechagias also pointed out that a bus had blocked the street, unable to pass because vehicles were parked on both sides.
“The fire engine couldn’t get through to put out the fire. The firefighters did everything they could with what they had. Their vehicles and equipment are old; they were even struggling to get water pressure, but that is not their fault.”
“God Bless Those Kids. They Held Me and I Jumped.”
The 75-year-old woman, speaking to public broadcaster ERT, described the terrifying moments she lived through and thanked those who came to her rescue.
“God bless those kids. They kept telling me, ‘Jump, jump,’ and they held me and I jumped,” she said.
She added that she had no idea how the fire started, noting that it broke out at the entrance of the home: “I don’t even know how it caught fire. I opened the door from the entrance and the whole house filled up.”
The couple’s son, who learned what was happening from a phone call from his mother while she was still inside the burning home, was visibly shaken as he recounted the call.
“My mother called me and said, ‘Everything is burning, everything is burning, I’m on fire. I don’t know where your father is, I don’t know what’s happening.’ She was forced to jump from the balcony,” he said.
