UK’s Asian community is saluting the heroic act of an Indian-origin grandfather, who put his own life in danger to save his 95 year old relative in the Greek inferno that killed 85 with 100 missing and hundreds homeless.
76 year old Chhaganlal Jagatia from Egham in Surrey was in Greece with his family. Speaking to Asian Voice from his hospital bed in Athens he said, “My daughter-in-law Maria is Greek. I was in Mytro hotel, which is a mile away from the sea, with my wife and family- wife, daughter-in-law, her mum,her grandmother, my one and half year old grand daughter and around 5pm the fire started approaching. We could see it in the distance. All the houses as far as we could see were on fire.
“My daughter-in-law’s grandmother Smaragpi Kandalepa (mother’s mother) is disabled. I train people for free in fire safety from Prajapati community and also have a certificate. So I rushed and told boarders to leave the hotel with their passports, as the floor, doors and room started becoming unbearably hot. I put my family in the car and asked them to leave too,” and he ran back to rescue Mrs Kandalepa (or Yaya as they called her, that means grandmother in Greek).
“She is 95 and disabled, so the family was trying to bring her on from the room on a wheelchair, but there were stairs,” he said. “I tried to help them go around and we could not. The hotel was smouldering hot and she was already burnt more than me. I tried to give her cold water to drink and pour over her burns. But she refused, because she was in a lot of pain. So I put her on her bed in the room, with much difficulty, and applied wet towels around her as the building began heating up further and smoke started to choke us. I had lost my phone, so I had to run to my room and called my daughter-in-law from my wife’s phone that was lying there. I told her to call for an ambulance as Yaya was badly burnt and hurting.
“But nothing was available as the blaze was catastrophic. 2 hours later two people arrived to take us away, but in ordinary vans, as there were no ambulances available. They took us to a point 1.5 miles away from the hotel in Mati, from there we were collected and taken to the hospital in Athens at around 10:45pm.
“My wife with my younger grandchild, daughter-in-law and her mother spent three hours in the sea as they waited to be evacuated to safety. Two cars behind theirs were burnt to ashes with people in them.
Mr Jagatia added, “I am thankful to God. It was his blessing that we survived. In fact when we were taken to the car, it rained a few drops. It was like Ramayana. When Hanuman put Lanka on fire, only Vibishana’s house stood unharmed, our situation was quite like that.”
He has burns on the back of his legs and hand, and on recovery in Athens government hospital. He has not yet been able to return home, though the hospital is believed to be happy to let him go when he is ready. The country’s President and the Archbishop also came to meet him and thank him for his selflessness and heroism.
Originally from Porbandar in Gujarat, India, Mr Jagatia came to the UK from Kenya on 27 February 1968, when he was just 26 years old. He moved to Kenya from India when he was 5 years old and married his wife Maniben (Manjula), who is from Nairobi, at Nakuru and have now lived in the UK for 30 years.
They have three sons and the youngest, Jay, who looks after his business with wife Maria, who is Greek. They are teaching Gujarati to their half Greek granddaughters as well as Greek and as grandparents they feel proud of these children’s mixed heritage.
Mr Jagatia continues to recover as Mrs Kandalepa is reportedly in an induced coma. Mr Jagatia's son Jay told Daily Mail, “What my dad did was heroic.”
The blaze that broke out on last Monday in Greece had hit the coastal villages popular with tourists. Some 60 people are still being treated in hospital, 11 in intensive care.
Rescue workers who are searching a cliffside in Mati found more human remains on Thursday, the BBC reported. More than 500 homes were destroyed, and some are yet to be examined. Identifying the victims is proving difficult as the bodies are so badly burnt.
Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told the BBC that illegal construction allegedly had contributed to the disaster. He had further added that building by residents between wooded areas was a "crime" that had actually resulted in blocked escape routes.
