A tragedy in Greece as wildfires destroy a seaside resort town
Greece faced its worst tragedy in over a decade, as a devastating wildfire ripped through a seaside town, killing 80 people and destroying 1,500 homes. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from beaches and the ocean, having fled the flames and smoke on land.
Welcome to Plain English, episode number 73. I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, and you are listening to the podcast for English learners. As you know by now, we got at a little bit slower speed just for people who are learning and need that extra little time to pick up on all the words. To help you out, we have a full transcript of this episode online at PlainEnglish.com/73. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter at PlainEnglishPod; tell us what you think there. The expression you’re going to hear about later on today is flat-footed, so listen up for that.
Fires devastate Greek seaside town
The photographs of Greece’s worst tragedy in over a decade are chilling. Dead stalks of burned trees stand while the earth below them is white with ash, the odd skeleton of a building still standing. Deep-orange, high flames ripping through green trees and seaside houses. Cars deformed and destroyed in burned-out streets.
This is what was left after a wildfire swept through the town of Mati, a seaside resort not far from Athens, Greece’s capital. After two days, only destruction was left where there was once a beautiful resort town.
The weather contributed. Temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celcius), and dry winds of more than 60 miles per hour (or 100 kilometers per hour) were a toxic combination that fanned the flames. Another fire had broken out about 50 miles away, and many firefighters and equipment were occupied, leaving the town of Mati with fewer resources to fight its own fire.
The result was tragedy on a grand scale.
As in many such disasters, the damage seemed random and arbitrary. One fortunate family was saved from their apartment balcony, where all around them the other buildings were destroyed. Some trees and shrubbery looked healthy and untouched, whereas a block away everything was turned to ash.
The geography of the area meant that many residents had to choose between two horrifying options: risk the clogged roads going away from the water, or head to the sea.
In narrow streets near the sea, which were built long before the area became a more densely-populated resort area, 80 cars were abandoned and completely destroyed; the streets were incinerated and became nothing but a bed of ash. You can imagine people crowding into the streets and realizing too late that there was no hope to escape, abandoning their cars to flee on foot. Hours later, the scene showed only deformed steel frames of the cars, the paint melted off the outside and the interiors torched.
The sea granted refuge to some, but it meant danger to others. Younger, healthier people were able to swim to safety, treading water as they awaited rescue, while others drowned or suffocated from the smoke that hung over the shallow water. Those who survived faced the choice of going farther out to sea or staying closer to the shore where their eyes and lungs would burn from the smoke. The coast guard and private citizens in their own boats saved dozens of people from the water and over 800 people trapped on the beaches.
In the aftermath of a disaster like this, there are clues that allow you to imagine the last desperate moments of people who were fighting to survive, but who could not. And so it was in this case. A long stretch of the sea was bordered not by beaches, but by steep cliffs. And there was a narrow staircase leading down from dry land to the sea below. Twenty-six people were fighting their way through smoke-filled streets, searching for a way to the safety of the sea. From where they were, there was only one narrow staircase down, only one escape route to the water. The bodies of those 26 people were found just yards from the staircase: officials think the people either didn’t know about the stairway or couldn’t find it in the thick smoke. They were trapped between a sharp cliff and the approaching flames. Some of their bodies were discovered in an embrace: they died hugging and comforting each other.
Over 80 people died and 1,500 homes were destroyed—not to mention the damage to the natural landscape. Officials now believe there are “serious indications of arson,” meaning that the fires may have been started on purpose—but it is too early to tell for sure. The government was caught flat-footed and underestimated the scale of the fire until it was too late. The city did not give an evacuation order when the fires first appeared and the town appeared to have no serious evacuation plan.
There are two links I’d like you to check out after you finish listening to this episode. The first one is a moving article in the New York Times, which is beautifully written and captures the scene of the tragedy. It’s a great piece of writing and I bet you’ll understand most of it. The link to that article is in the show notes. The other is a link to the Guardian, a newspaper in London, which has the most dramatic photos of the tragedy that I saw on the Internet. The pictures really allow you to imagine the scale of this terrible tragedy. The links to both those articles are in the show notes, which you can see in whatever app you’re using to listen, and on the web site.
New York Times: As Greek Wildfire Closed In, a Desperate Dash Ended in Death
The Guardian: Greece wildfires: satellite imagery shows devastation in Mati – visual guide
I want to say hi to Luciana and all her students in Santo André in Brazil. Luciana is an English teacher, actually, and assigned her students to pick a topic of interest and write a podcast just like Plain English and then record it. Luciana says that listening to this is the best way to practice listening and to be informed about world events at the same time. Hey—Luciana is the English teacher here, so who am I to argue? Thanks for spreading the word, Luciana, and keep us up to date about the assignment with your students—I’d love to know what they choose and how they sound. Don’t forget to write back when they’re done, okay?
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