''They didn’t deserve to die like this''

“You found your way to paradise in the most painful way… a way you didn’t deserve.”

With those gut-wrenching words, Anna Avraam bid farewell to her brother and sister-in-law, Dimitris and Maro Filippidis, aged 81 and 77, who died while trying to flee the flames that swept through the mountains of Limassol on July 23.

Their funeral was held Tuesday morning at the Holy Church of Panagia Evangelistria in Kato Polemidia, where relatives, friends, and government ministers gathered in mourning and in anger.

“Were you fully prepared?”

Standing before the ministers of Defense, Education, and Health, as well as the deputy ministers of Shipping and Social Welfare, Anna Avraam did not hold back.

She accused the government of failing to protect its citizens, referencing recent public assurances that the country was “fully prepared” for the fire season.

“Where were you fully prepared?” she asked pointedly, as officials looked on in silence. “They didn’t die from cancer. They didn’t die in their sleep. They were murdered by fire, and by your negligence.”

Dimitris and Maro, both cancer survivors, had been fighting quietly for years, but it was the fire that ultimately overtook them as they tried to escape.

Mourning turns to fury

The funeral, though filled with grief, quickly turned into a moment of reckoning. The laying of wreaths, one from Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas on behalf of the president, was solemn but couldn’t mask the rising frustration among mourners.

“No matter how many explanations are given, no matter how much responsibility is taken,” said Avraam, “they won’t come back. And we will ask ourselves every day, Why?”

A symbol of a broader failure?

The tragic deaths of Dimitris and Maro have become a symbol of what many see as a broader systemic failure to respond to the wildfire threat. While officials had claimed readiness, delays in staffing, equipment shortages, and a lack of aerial firefighting resources have now come under intense public scrutiny.

Multiple parties in Parliament are demanding answers. An emergency session is scheduled for next week to examine how the state handled the Limassol fire, one of the worst in recent memory.

But for the Filippidis family, no investigation or apology will ease the loss.

“You didn’t give up when life got hard,” Anna said at the altar, her voice breaking. “But in the end, this country gave up on you.”