Plaque unveiled for Mari dead

A LARGE marble plaque honouring the six firefighters who died in the Mari naval base explosion last July was unveiled yesterday at Fire Station 1 in Larnaca.

"It is our duty to honour these firefighters and with them the other seven (sailors) who lost their lives," said head of the Retired Firefighters' Association , Stavros Kyprianou.

The plaque includes the names of the six firefighters who were killed: Vassilis Krokos, Andreas Papadopoulos, Giorgos Yiakoumi, Spyros Ttantis, Adamos Adamou and Panayiotis Theofilou.

Larnaca mayor Andreas Louroudjiatis described the day as one of 'honour and emotion'.

"With bravery, courage and self-sacrifice on July 11 they responded to the call of duty and gave their lives to protect the lives of others," he said.

Andreas Krokos, father of Vassilis Krokos, thanked the organisers of the event and with tears in his eyes said that "today (yesterday) it has been 11 months since that black day where a knife became stuck in our hearts forever".

As part of the event, firefighters from the disaster response squad EMAK marched with six lit torches from the EAC building to the Fire Station. Following the unveiling, a mass was held in memory of the 13 killed during the blast.