Smyrna Burning

In my last post, I showed you a selection of historic Greek houses from Smyrna. Here is the continuation of my adventures in that city, as I accidentally witnessed the death of one such historical house, this time in the Kemeralti district. At around 3.00 AM, me and my friends were drinking on the slopes of Varyant, a neighborhood with an amazing vista of the city. Suddenly, we noticed a plume of smoke wafting through the distant air.

Being drunk and very excited, we quickly rode up to the point the smoke was coming from. An disturbingly bright light illuminated the narrow, darkened streets.

The source of the light soon became visible: Fire. One of the abandoned Greek mansions was burning, exploding into the night. Firefighters were already at work, hopelessly trying to extinguish the blaze. Here are some of the Hieromyus Bosch - style night shots I took.


At one point one of the front walls collapsed, showering everywhere with sparks and cinders.



It wasn't long before a second fire engine arrived on the scene to combat the fire.



We did not stay to watch the inevitable outcome. Overcome with sadness of watching a landmark disappear, but also a perverted, primal pleasure at having survived a fiery adventure, we rode off into the Smyrniote night.

Still not sober, we tried to sell these photos off to Yeni Asir (the New Century,) one of the city's more popular local newspapers. We were greeted by a scruffy-looking journalist with a smug smile on his face. "We already shot the blaze, better luck next time boys!" he grinned as he shooed us away. Next time? I hope there will never be a "next time" when one of the beautiful houses of Smyrna burns down.