Fires still going close to home.

Hiya!
So....where were we?  Friday

Hah!  I know......Michael was just about to be snuffed out!

Well, as you probably gathered he hadn't shuffled off his mortal coil.....in fact, he was sitting reading a book with his back to all the fuss and was completely oblivious as to the peril he was in.

"Fire?  What bloody fire?"

Michael had been sitting with his back to the fire only venturing to look the other direction when his beer can ran dry!  Even the overwhelming smell of smoke seemed to be little more than 'a bar-B gone wrong!'

But I eventually managed to push him into the car and showed him what the rest of Valencia had been watching all afternoon (Figures 1-6).

Figure 1.  The growing smoke cloud behind our house.
 

Figure 2.  From the cement works it looked like the whole valley was on fire and from where I stood, I imagined Michael's house, with him inside, underneath all that! 

Figure 3.  We drove round the corner into the next valley.  The fire was stretching in a neat line all the way from one side, down the escarpment, across the valley floor and up the other side.

Figure 4.  And what was more....it seemed to be moving fast.  Michael lives a short way to the left of this fire.  The wind was blowing it away from him but even so we were both very pessimistic at this time.

 

 
Figure 5.  There was one solitary house in the way.  I'm sure it is completely burned out now.  I'll go back to check soon. 

Figure 6.  The devastation was immense but at that moment the scale of the ecological disaster was far from our minds.  We were somewhat preoccupied worrying about survival!  All Michael could say was, "Fuck me!  I had no idea!"

Somehow we managed to survive that day.  The wind died down in the late afternoon, as did the firefighting efforts.  On no occasion throughout this fire did we hear or see the firefighters working after dark!  By this time questions were beginning to be asked of the local Valenciano government.  Were they doing enough to halt the progress of the fires?  Why did they not work through on the Thursday and Friday nights to quell the flames when they were still small enough to deal with?  Was it incompetence, bankruptcy, mismanagement or some weird combination of all three!  On the face of it the local government were doing the right things!  There they were on TV fighting the fight, saying the right things (or was it just paying lip-service?), and apparently doing the right things.  But why o' why o' why didn't they continue to fight the fires with all their might whilst the daylight lasted?  I cannot answer that and can only state what I saw quite clearly each and every day.

As the clock ticked relentlessly on and the fires marched to the tune of the southerly breezes the flying fire fighters did their best.  I am in no way criticising the bravery and dedication of these intrepid men and women.  Tragically two helicopter pilots died over the weekend fighting fires a 100km to the south in Cortes de Pallas.  My respects and condolences go to their families and friends.

Nevertheless, many people have lost everything and they, more so than me, are entitled to ask why the fire fighting stopped for siesta and why, with over 4 hours of daylight remaining, did the planes and helicopters stop flying every day when the fire was at it's height?  And why were the fires left to rage and rampage across the vineyards, the cultivated fields, the national parks and mountaintops all night, every night?

I heard a rumour that the helicopters didn't have lights!

"Oh, well, that's alright then!!  No lights so they cannot see!  But hang on, so why stop at 5.30pm then, when it's still light?"

These rhetorical conversations with myself must stop.....but then who else was I going to ask these questions of?  And more than that, who else was going to provide the answer?

"Oh I see....the football was on...now I understand!  Priorities my friend!  A simple case of priorities!  That mountain was going to burn anyway, so what difference does it make if I fight it or go to the bar?"

"Well, when you put it like that....I guess I understand?  Was it a good match?"

"Oh, I dunno!  I was too pissed to see it anyway.  But we won, so you know what that means?  That's right, no work on Monday!!!"

I am joking here, but there really is no excuse for much of the destruction.  When the fires were (relatively) small and may have been contained they were left to grow and blacken the skies of the city.  By Sunday ash was falling over Valencia in steady stream, almost as if a volcano had erupted.  And the fires were all but out of control.

Sunday morning I went out for a drive again, taking the same route I had traveled with Michael the day before.  Luckily for us, the relative chill and humidity of the previous night had put paid to the worst of the fires near us and for the first time I began to feel that we were out of danger.  The focus of the fires had shifted across to the mountains and ridge-tops opposite us where the fires raced down the Calderona mountains towards the coast.  Somewhere up behind us, probably around Andilla, the fires burned on, though the stifling smoke of the previous 2 days had now subsided, for us anyway.  Even so, small pockets of resistance still remained.  As I came to the northern side of the ridge-top behind Michael I found one such pocket.

Figure 7.  As we came round a bend in the track we could smell smoke and there was a lone fire engine watching the fire on the hillside.

Figure 8.  The whole valley was full of smoke on what was a clear, sunny day elsewhere.


Figure 9 (below).  As we went to move on our friend Julio, the shepherd, arrived.  He was asking the firemen what was happening with the fighting but didn't really get any suitable answers.  He was, understandably, very worried because his corral where his sheep are left at night, was just up the valley no more than 4-500m away.





 
Figure 10 (above).  Julio and I (foreground) part company for the moment after discussing the problem.  Julio, ever the optimist, made me smile with his 'never-say-burn' attitude!  Optimism is a good thing....but can sometimes misplaced.  That afternoon the fire swept up the valley (Figures 18-20) to the left burning everything in it's path and beat a door right to the threshold of Julio's corral.


Figure 11 (below).  The ridge-top that had been aflame the day before (see Figure 4 above) was now nothing but blackened stumps and piles of ash.

Figure 12.  All afternoon on Sunday lines of sea planes fought the flames at Andilla.

Figure 13.  As the danger died down for us I watched as the flames moved down the Calderona mountains towards the coast. 

 

Figure 14.  As the sunlight faded the extent of the fires on the Calderonas became clear.  The TV news was saying the fires had crept over the peaks and out of our view and were now ravaging the lush, green valleys of Palencia and the beautiful towns therein.

Figure 15.  ......and the fires rage on.

The following morning (Monday) I walked back round to roughly where we'd seen the fire engine the day before.  Once again we bumped into Julio who told us that he'd been coming to work on his moped when he'd seen some people trying to stamp out a small fire.  He'd stopped to help and had been fire fighting with his bare hands and walking stick - his blackened arms bearing witness to his endeavours - as he told us that things were far from secure and that both Michael and his corral were still in danger.  As we wandered down to where he'd told us the fire was we saw the smoke (Figure 16).

Figure 16.  Smoke rising from amongst what remained of the forested slopes.

Figure 17.  How the forest was before the fires struck.

Figure 18.  As we walked down the valley, the forest that, just the day before had been lush and green, had been reduced to a smouldering, smoking mound of blackened stumps and ash.

Figure 19.  All the way up the side of the ridge the ground was white, as if it had been snowing.

Figure 20.  In some places there was very little left standing at all.  It all had a very sort of 'end of days' type of feeling!  Very odd!

Figures 21-28.  It was just a small pocket of fire but was on the only remaining forested part of this side of the valley.  Everywhere else was already burned out.  It could only go up this slope or back behind us onto the ridge on which Michael lives and beyond that, where we are.

Figure 21.  Above.

Figure 22.

Figure 23.

Figure 24.

Figure 25.

Figure 26.

Figure 27.

Figure 28.

We continued down the path and very soon saw the reason for all the smoke.  It was only a small fire (I'm sure, by comparison) but even so it still looked like it had potential to spread and possibly endanger Julio's property once again.  We stayed for 10 minutes during which time both Michael and I wondered aloud how there was no-one here to even watch if the fire might spread once again (Figures 21-28).  But as we walked away we heard one of the sea planes coming in for a closer look.  It circled round and as Julio came down to join us again it dropped it's payload on the fire (Figure 29 & 30).

Figure 29.  Julio clambers up the side to snuff out any wisps of smoke with his walking stick and hands.

Figure 30.  The seaplane circled round first of all......

Figure 31.  ....and then dumped it's payload right where we'd been standing not 5 minutes before.

Tomorrow I'll be back with more updates, more pics and hopefully, some video of the fires.

Have a good day
Peter XX