I know I haven't been here for a long time but now is not the time for excuses etc.........last Thursday night a fire was started somewhere up behind where I now sit. A 57 year old man has been detained, accused of starting the fire which by Friday morning had surrounded the town of Andilla - a mere 25km by road and probably less than 15 in a straight line, from here - and rushed across the mountain tops just to the north of us near Alcublas. A considerable distance in a single night. Now, having been up there today I have seen the devastation for myself and I remain utterly convinced that we had a very lucky escape.
In the days up to last Friday the weather had been unseasonably hot because of strong winds blowing up from the Sahara filling the skies with sand and turning them yellow, so that when a large yellow and brown cloud billowed up behind my house I didn't at first take much notice. But it was very soon apparent that this was no cloud of sand at all.
Figure 1. The very first picture.
Figure 2. The growing disaster.
At first the cloud had been small and insignificant but as it grew I ran for my camera (Figure 1 shot at about 3.pm). By some 2 hours later the wind had died down somewhat allowing the cloud to billow and mushroom (Figure 2). A fire was obviously raging fairly close up behind where we live and seemed to be coming from the direction where we have some friends. I began to panic and turned on the local news....which is in Valenciano, the local language, and not Spanish....just to make my life awkward! But there it was...on TV news...the fire! It was everywhere! It was about then the first helicopters appeared.
Figure 3. Helicopters shuttling to and fro.
They began ferrying the huge water buckets up behind where we sat and fretted (Figure 3), coming back to fill up at quarried out hole at a cement works just behind a small hill in front of us (Figure 4). By this stage I was in full fledged panic mode! If I'd had presence of mind at the time I would have drove the short distance down to the refill spot and got some good shots. But I didn't!
Figure 4. They came back each time to fill up near us.
Figure 5. The helicopters often flew right over our heads with a full load below. It wasn't until a few days later that I saw just how effective they can be.
Figure 6. The fire just before we left the house for the pool. This was the view from the bottom of our garden.
Figure 7. Across on the mountain tops opposite us the fire had also started to rage.
We had guests staying for the weekend...over from London for weekend of festivities at another mutual friends house! Fire or no fire, until it was time to go we had entertainment to provide. Everyone decided that since it was so hot we'd go to local lido - which is lovely by the way, and full of beautiful young things....but that's another story! - for a swim. And in so doing we'd pass by the cement works and I might be able to get my shot! Cool! Except that by the time we got near the cement works and I could see clearly up the valley behind our house I wasn't going anywhere! The fire was everywhere! And what was more it was only 5pm and the helicopters had already stopped flying. If I was panicking before, then this was a bloody coronary! I dropped them of at the pool with my wife and said I'm going straight round to Michael's house, that's if it was still standing! And judging from all the smoke about up there it didn't seem likely!
Will Michael live or will Michael be snuffed out? The next post tomorrow morning.
Peter
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