Courtesy of Juan Manuel de Haro
The provincial press reported that a ‘westerly gale had swallowed to bathers,’ reporting that a 45-year-old son had attempted to rescue his 65-year-old father from drowning, but perished himself along with his father. The account goes on to say that two other people, both young Spaniards attempted to rescue them both but after getting into difficulties they had to turn back. One swam back to the Tesorillo beach, whilst the other made it round the small headland where the tower stands to find calmer water and salvation. That’s the official account.
At first the only information was that two men had drowned, and little more, but after speaking with the Guardia Civil it was disclosed that the victims were British, father and son, who had been passing their holidays here.
However, speaking with one of the business owners on the beach, he told me of his involvement, of the frustration felt, the emotional aftermath, but also of the satisfaction felt from having saved the life of one of the Spanish would be–rescuers.
He had heard the commotion whilst serving his tables on the beach in front of the chiringuito and was in time to see the son throw himself into the surf.
Apparently, the father had not decided to go for a swim despite the waves, but rather had been knocked off his feet by a large wave, as he walk along the beach, and sucked into the sea by the undertow, so he was struggling from the start. The son didn’t hesitate for one moment and plunged in, but the trouble with the Tesorillo beach when there is a westerly gale blowing is that anybody in the water is just washed around and around by the trapped current, making it impossible to reach the beach.
Upon seeing the third person entering the water, the chiringuito owner had the presence of mind to run into his store and grab his young son’s toy dingy. He ran with it out onto the rocks beneath the tower until he came abreast of the young Spaniard who was exhausted and on the point of giving up.
The father by then was inert and face down, but the son occasionally raised his head out of the water. The chiringuito owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, kept shouting at the son to keep his head out of the water, but he either didn’t understand him or didn’t hear him because of the distance and noise, or was too weak by then to attempt it.
So X. concentrated on the Spanish man swimming, who was closer to the rocks where he stood, telling him to swim for the rocks so that he could throw the boat to him. At first, afraid of approaching the rocks, the swimmer said that he was going to try for the beach, but X finally convinced him and managed to throw the small inflatable dinghy close enough to the swimmer for him to reach it. The swimmer tried to climb in, but X told him to not to squander his energy and just hang onto it and let the current take him, which it did and he was eventually able to regain the beach.
This whole incident raises several questions, firstly, the absence of a red flag and secondly, the absence of a life-saving equipment such as a life ring. How much time was lost with X having to run to his store, find the dinghy and run along the rocks with it. Could the father have been saved if there had been a life ring at hand in the first moments of the tragedy? Should there have been a red flag on the Tesorillo beach? Why, on all Almuñécar beaches were the red-flag-alert service and the lifesavers withdrawn at the beginning of September, when the beaches are still in much used – they are still used even now in the last days of September?
But it should also be known that Salobreña and Motril retrieve all their beach installations around the 10th, including showers and walkways, and not just safety equipment and teams. Almuñécar is the only one that maintains beach equipment all year round, with functioning showers etc.
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