Maria Karagianni, a survivor of the Marfin Bank fire, has relived the absolute terror she experienced on May 5, 2010, when hooded arsonists set fire to the bank’s branch on Stadiou Street. Sixteen years after the crime that shook Greece and claimed the lives of three employees and an unborn baby, Karagianni delivered a devastating testimony on the Live News program, prompted by the recent arrests of two suspects.
Reflecting on her feelings upon hearing about the latest judicial and police developments, she confessed: “The first thing I felt today when I learned there were new developments in solving this crime was deep turmoil. At first I felt shaken, because all the memories come flooding back — the bottomless pain and the unanswered questions. Why were the lives of our three colleagues taken so unjustly? We feel deeply wronged. We could have been in their place.”
Marfin fire — Maria Karagianni: “They were fully aware there were people inside the building — they could see and hear them”
Karagianni was determined to set the record straight about the circumstances of the attack, categorically rejecting the claim that the perpetrators did not know employees were inside the bank.
“The criminals were fully aware that there were people inside the building. When they smashed the glass and threw in the flammable liquid, my colleagues were screaming. We were begging them not to burn us. Not to attack us. Because this view has been heard from one of your colleagues — that they didn’t know — that is simply not true. They could see the people and they could hear them screaming. ‘Please don’t throw it,’ they were shouting at them,” she said emphatically.
The nightmare of being trapped and the call for justice
The moments leading up to her rescue, as she described them, paint a vivid picture of the horror of that day, as well as the physical toll the toxic fumes took on those trapped inside.
“At the moment the glass shattered, it was like an earthquake. I was in the basement and I immediately called the police. After giving them information, I tried to call emergency services but the line had gone dead. I made my way as high up as I could in order to breathe. Then I stepped out onto the balcony and stayed there with four other colleagues. Three of them managed to cross over to other balconies. I was left holding a transaction ledger and the building’s keys — a situation of total panic that no one could manage. And then the smoke. I kept thinking I had no more breath left. For a week, our bodies were coughing up ash and charred debris,” she recounted vividly.
Closing her statement, Karagianni expressed the hope shared by survivors and victims’ families that the latest turn in the case will finally lead to a real outcome: “We hope that this time it is not misinformation or a political game. They must be tried and they must go to prison.”
