CULTURE SPAIN – FIRES IN SPAIN

WILD FIRE IN SPAIN - BARX

Well, there has been great ‘excitement’ (if that is the right word) over the past few hours!  At the other side of our pueblo, a wild fire has been blazing away.  For hours now there has been the constant drone of planes full of water crossing overhead. These, once they reach the fire, launch themselves at it and water bomb the long base of the flames that stretch all the way up the hillside.

As soon as the planes leave, a helicopter appears dropping carefully down to a water deposit to fill its huge underslung bag with more water.  Heaving its way upwards,  the helicopter then climbs along the flaming hillside, before releasing a cascade of water onto the burning vegetation.  Meanwhile, on the ground there are many fireman who have already closed one of the roads to our village.

Unquestionably, it is a dangerous time.  Today, there is a reasonable breeze and this is sufficient to collect burning embers and throw them hundreds of metres away.  Inevitably, they land within the tinder dry undergrowth and start yet another fire further along the hillside.  For the firemen, it must be like trying to cut off the head of a Hydra!

Of course, fires in Spain are, sadly, reasonably common, despite everyone’s natural precautions.  A mere spark can be enough to set alight a fire that could almost instantly go wildly out of control.  Sometimes this happens because someone has been careless with a cigarette butt and, I dare say, ocassionally fires are started deliberately.  At other times, fires can be lit by lightening during an electrical storm.

We had our biggest fire here a few years ago.  It was massive and ran terribly out of control.  For 24 hours the fire service fought it with everything they had but it swept relentlessly down a mountainside opposite us, driven by a strong inland (Poniente) wind.  Roads were cut off and a heavy pall of black smoke immersed the whole area – with even the town of Gandia disappearing in a dense haze.

Just as the fire seemed to run out of combustible material, the wind changed direction.  Almost immediately the fire leapt over onto our side of the mountain and began returning in the direction it had come but along previously untouched vegetation and trees – at the end of which was our house and the rest of La Drova!

By ill fortune, the wind had reversed direction just as night fell.  This meant that the water bombing planes and their accompanying helicopters were powerless to help – it being far too dangerous for them to fly through steep mountains, at night, with smoke and fire everywhere.

Very efficiently, the Guardia Civil visited all our houses and placed us on immediate evacuation alert!  There was, of course, little that we could do as the night passed, except watch as giant, blood red flames advanced relentlessly in our direction.  Our car was packed, the animals were made ready to go and I had, rather vainly, drenched our garden and the exterior of our house.

However, within seconds of dawn breaking, the sky was filled again with planes and helicopters which repeatedly bombed the leaping flames.  The wind had briefly stopped and within a couple of hours the fire was under control and had been largely put out.

As you can imagine, our household breathed a universal sigh of relief – whilst feeling thankful for the well practised and excellent professionalism of the Spanish fire service.  Certainly, the expert level of the daring pilots of both the planes and helicopters was something to see.  Wheeling, circling and diving through palls of smoke through mountain passes and beside steep peaks – whilst carrying tons of water – is not for the faint hearted…

I do not want to exagerate the danger of fires in Spain – however they are one of the ever present dangers of living here.  Actually, watching the swirling smoke of our fire today, I could not really think of any other.  There are no dangerous snakes or animals likely to do us harm and we live in a peculiarly benign environment.  But fires in Spain (wherever you are) – are a different matter altogether and are an unwelcome menace to anyone living in Spain!