Three deaths in three days at Guardamar: what the red flag means

Three people drowned off Guardamar del Segura in the space of three days. On Thursday a 51-year-old Dutch man at La Roqueta, on Saturday a couple of 25 at Els Vivers. The red flag was flying at both beaches at the time. That last point is not incidental, and the rest of this piece is about why: where the current here comes from, how to spot it, and why it was the people who went in to help who did not make it.

What happened

Thursday 1 October, around 17:50, playa de La Roqueta. A 51-year-old man from the Netherlands got into difficulty and called for help. Medical services, the Local Police and the Guardia Civil attended. He died.

Saturday 3 October, alert at 14:11, playa dels Vivers. Two people aged 25 lost their lives: a young man and a young woman, a couple, of Ukrainian origin and living in Poland. They were visiting friends in Guardamar and swimming with a group.

What the emergency services describe: two women in that group could not get back to shore. Their partners went into the water to reach them. One man got his partner out. The other did not, and drowned together with her.

The CICU coordination centre sent two SAMU advanced life support ambulances and a basic life support unit. Both victims were given CPR. It did not work; they died at the scene.

The red flag was flying at both beaches. At Els Vivers it had been up, according to the town hall, for seven or eight days.

Why there: the mouth of the Segura

Els Vivers lies south of the mouth of the River Segura, and that is not an incidental detail.

Where a river meets the sea the bed changes. Channels and sandbars form, and the water pushed up the beach by the surf has to find its way back out. That returning water does not go back evenly; it concentrates in the deeper channels. The result is a rip current, corriente de retorno in Spanish: a narrow, fast lane of water running away from the beach.

The same thing happens at groynes and harbour walls, and Guardamar has those too. The spots that look calmest from the beach, because there is less foam and fewer breakers, are often where the strongest flow runs. That is the trap: the smooth water between two breaking sections is not the safe place, it is the exit.

The municipality counts eleven kilometres of coast. That is a lot of beach, with very different conditions along it.

The flags, and what happens if you ignore them

The Spanish flag system is short.

Green: swimming allowed, conditions normal.
Yellow: swim with caution. Stay shallow, pay attention.
Red: swimming is prohibited. Not discouraged, not unwise: prohibited.

That is meant legally as well. In the Comunitat Valenciana swimming under a red flag carries a fine, and the figure that circulates is up to 750 euros. The exact amount is set in the municipal by-law, which we could not consult for Guardamar, so treat that as an order of magnitude rather than a tariff.

More important than the fine: a red flag means the people who watch this sea every day do not trust it today. At Els Vivers that flag had been up for more than a week.

And note the difference between a flag and supervision. A flag can be standing there with nobody watching.

Spotting a rip current

A rip current does not pull you under. That is the most persistent misunderstanding. It pulls you out, and people drown by exhausting themselves trying to get back.

What to look for, from the beach and ideally from a dune or a set of steps:

A strip of water that is smoother than the rest, where the waves are not breaking.
Water that looks murkier or sandier, or where foam and weed are drifting outwards.
A gap in the line of breaking waves.
A place where the water seems to be moving away from the beach.

If you do end up in one:

Do not swim against it. It wins. Every time.
Float and get your breathing under control. Panic burns more oxygen than swimming.
Swim parallel to the beach to get out of the lane. A rip is often only a few metres wide.
If that fails: raise an arm and shout. Let it carry you until it weakens, then swim back at an angle.

That this is not theoretical at Guardamar is what the weekend showed. And it applies along this whole coast; even in the quieter coves of the Marina Alta we wrote about in our snorkelling and diving guide, this is basic knowledge.

The most dangerous moment is not the first casualty

This needs saying precisely, because it is what went wrong on Saturday and it is the pattern in a large share of drownings on this coast.

Two people got into trouble. Two others went in after them. Of those four, two did not come back, and the man who died was one of the rescuers.

That is not bad luck and it is not exceptional. Anyone who sees a person struggling goes into the water without a plan, without anything that floats, and with a heart rate already through the roof. Into the same current the first casualty could not handle. The odds of ending up with two people in trouble instead of one are very high.

So this is what lifesaving organisations advise, however unnatural it feels:

Do not go in after them without something that floats. A bodyboard, a cool box, an inflatable, a ring buoy off the post: anything beats bare hands.
Call 112 and say which beach, which stretch, how many people.
Keep watching and keep pointing. A person in the water is invisible from the shore within a minute. A second person doing nothing but pointing is worth a great deal to the emergency services.
Shout at them to float rather than swim.

If there is a lifeguard post, get them. That is what they are for and they have the equipment.

How long the lifeguards are there

This is the practical part that matters for the rest of the month.

Guardamar keeps its rescue and lifeguard service running in October at two beaches: Centro and La Roqueta. That service runs until 31 October.

Els Vivers, about two kilometres from the centre, falls outside it. There is no permanent cover there at this time of year.

That does not make Els Vivers off limits. It means you are the only one who will intervene, and the response time of an ambulance decides how it ends.

After 31 October the same goes for every beach in the municipality. October here is still beach weather, the sea is still warm and it feels like summer. The difference from August is not in the water but in who is standing at the water line watching. If you are heading to the coast in this period, our beach guide sets out what to expect town by town.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly happened? On Thursday 1 October a 51-year-old Dutch man drowned at La Roqueta. On Saturday 3 October two 25-year-olds drowned at Els Vivers. Three deaths in three days.

Was the red flag up? Yes, at both beaches. At Els Vivers for seven to eight days already.

What does the red flag mean? Swimming is prohibited, not discouraged.

Can you be fined? Yes. In the Comunitat Valenciana a figure of up to 750 euros circulates. The exact amount is in the municipal by-law.

What is a rip current? A narrow, fast lane of water running away from the beach, often at river mouths and groynes. It pulls you out, not under.

What do you do in one? Do not swim against it. Float, swim parallel to the beach, raise an arm and shout.

Should you go in after someone? Not without something that floats. On Saturday one of the dead was a rescuer.

Which number do you call? 112.

Where are the October lifeguards in Guardamar? At Centro and La Roqueta, until 31 October. Els Vivers has no permanent cover this season.

Why is Els Vivers more dangerous? It sits by the mouth of the Segura, where channels and currents meet, and it has no permanent cover.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.