The fire department on Monday disputed claims by the community leader of Vouni village that they “ran out of water” while fighting the wildfire tearing through the Limassol district last week as they had no means of powering a turbine to extract water from a borehole in the village.

Community leader Mattheos Protopapa explained that the borehole is located next to the village’s Ayios Ioannis Rossos church, which burnt down completely, and that it had “served the fire brigade in previous fires which threatened the village”.

“To give you an idea of the lack of organisation which exists, in the last 10 years, there were three fires, and we never learnt from the ordeals. They know that when there is a fire, electricity pylons will burn and the supply will be cut off. Why did they not have a generator to start the turbine to get water?”

Protopapas said he had pointed this fact out to President Nikos Christodoulides when they met on Sunday, and that he had also explained that his village’s narrow streets are in some cases not wide enough for fire engines to pass through.

“If we had small fire engines, which we had asked for, we would be able to pump water from the swimming pools behind people’s houses and put fires out,” he said.

In addition, he said the fire was detected by cameras at 1.48pm on Wednesday, but that “the aircraft did not come to us until almost three hours later”.

Responding to Protopapas, fire chief Nikos Longinos – who had overall operational command – said the fire department in fact had no problem with water supplies.

They were able to bring water tankers and also plug into fire hydrants at Vouni, he added.

Asked whether access to the borehole mentioned by Protopapas might have made a difference, Longinos repeated that “we had no problem with water.”

He added: “We saw to it that we had water tankers, be it from the district administrations, or from other agencies, or from private companies.”

The fire chief said he had already explained all this to Protopapas during Sunday’s meeting chaired by the president.

Regarding the point about the village of Vouni having narrow streets and therefore needing smaller fire engines, Longinos agreed.

But the fire chief dismissed accusations that firefighting aircraft took too long to deploy.

He said that on Wednesday two aircraft were making airdrops over the village of Anayia, Nicosia district.

“Once we learned about the fire in Limassol, we put two more planes up in the air. I gave the orders, and immediately the Ikaros plan was activated.”

Later, when the extent of the wildfire in Limassol became apparent, instructions were given to deploy all available aircraft.

This is all documented, as well as the times, the fire chief said.

Longinos also addressed criticism that authorities had disregarded warnings of extremely hot weather and strong winds during the week.

Far from ignoring this data, he said, on Tuesday evening he had asked Limassol district authorities to carry out patrols starting early on Wednesday.

“These things did happen, and the sky patrols were there early in the morning [Wednesday],” he offered.

Protopapas meanwhile was asked about the situation regarding properties in his village. He said 35 houses have been completely destroyed and 34 damaged, and that “arrangements have been made” to accommodate those who are unable to return to their homes.

He also said that when he returned to the Ayios Ioannis Rossos church, he found some Russian people there already, who had travelled to clean it.

Additionally, he thanked other groups, including groups of football fans, who travelled to his village and others nearby to help in the cleanup operation.

“Yesterday, Ael fans, Apollon fans, and Omonia fans came and brought us help from the Red villages [in Famagusta]. I am 66 years old, and I have never cried as much as I did yesterday, from the emotion. In the difficult moment, everyone was here, and we must build on that now,” he said.

He added that the people of his village have “set a goal to be reborn from the ashes”.

“Life goes on and we must look forward,” he said.