The Fumes of Mars

On 23 July 2018, in the North East of Athens, Greece, one of the deadliest wild fire sever recorded took place. It was in the area photographer Katerina Angelopoulou spent her summers as a child, and the home of her parents. The fire rushed from the hilltop, jumping over the pine trees, and to the edge of the sea in less than an hour and a half–swallowing everything in its path. The Fire Department, and the Civil Protection failed to respond to the situation as well as its immediate aftermath. An evacuation plan, or even a rushed warning was never executed and the necessary forces to battle effectively the fire or rescue people never dispatched to the area. The fire spread to the east, engulfing several small towns. Locals and passerby’s were abandoned by those same structures that were there to protect them. The artist, her mother and her three-year-old daughter were trapped at the shoreline with several others for many hours before help finally arrived.