There is no time left. Firefighting professionals (UME, firefighters, and forest rangers) are giving their all. They know they barely have 48 hours to stop the fire that is ravaging the center of the peninsula, in the provinces of Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo, affecting about 70,000 hectares, of which around 50,000 are in the natural jewel that is Gredos, sadly making this Ávila area the largest fire in Spain’s history. And this race against time is explained by the new heat wave, the fourth, arriving on Wednesday, which will again push temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees.
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“We have no time,” says a technician at the command post in Navaluenga (Ávila). We cannot stop because high temperatures will again reduce humidity and winds become uncontrollable. It is the magic recipe for fires, what makes them stronger, they say.
Will they be able to control it? Experts believe it is possible, although they know it is difficult. They have sufficient resources, they assure, but they are of little use against a very complicated meteorological situation. When temperature, humidity, and wind align in favor, as happened on the mornings of this Saturday and Sunday, in the afternoon, the wind turned and slowed the advances. “This is how we are…, but it will be achieved,” encourages Manuel, one of the firefighters who spent the night fighting in the Tiétar valley.
“I want to see my horses, I don’t know if they are alive, if they have food, come with me to see them!” shouts Fran
The pain is palpable in this valley, which lives off tourism. The residents have managed to leave, but they leave behind their homes and livelihoods. Fran argues with a civil guard who prevents him from passing through a path to the estate. “I want to see my horses, I don’t know if they are alive, if they have food, come with me to see them!” he shouts. He is literally devastated.
He is not the only one. Many affected residents, especially in this area, suffer for their animals. The difficulty in accessing herds of livestock that have been cut off and without access to water or food in the areas affected by the large forest fires is the main impact now facing the primary sector.
These cries have been heard and from the veterinary units, aid has been arranged to bring water and forage to Burgohondo, El Tiemblo, or Navalmoral de la Sierra.
This is also being done in Madrid, where the fire in the San Martín de Valdeiglesias area has clearly worsened, causing a hellish situation, in the words of the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
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According to the emergency management, among the points of concern are the surroundings of the San Juan reservoir (the well-known “Madrid beach”), where firefighting forces have “literally risked their lives to defend houses,” it indicates. Also the surroundings of the Cofio river and the urbanization again evacuated of Encinar del Alberche, located in Villa del Prado.
Emilia, president of the urbanization, is one of the few who have been able to enter the urbanization and what she saw there is simply horror. She talks about a ghost urbanization, gray, full of ash, with dozens of destroyed houses, with vehicles on their chassis… “Horror,” she insists.
Most of these residents are between the sports centers of Villamanta and Navalcarnero. They are part of those more than 92,000 people already affected by the forest fires in the three provinces of the central peninsula, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. In total, there are 92,149, of which 63,152 have been evacuated from the towns threatened by the fire and another 28,997 remain confined due to the risk posed by the disasters in their municipalities.
So far, those affected have been patient, but patience is beginning to run out. Sleeping on mats, spending all day looking at the phone for the latest news, the fear of what they will find when they get home weighs more than the arguments that these relocations have the sole purpose of protecting the lives of the residents.
And that atmosphere is prone to conspiracy theories, such as “it is not true that the town is surrounded by fire, they are taking us out to control us,” because “where are the flames?” asks a resident who has been tied up in the La Muni bar for days.
Be that as it may, what does seem real is that many of these residents will take some time to return to their homes, because this voracious fire resists with all its might being controlled and, much less, extinguished. In fact, the municipalities in the south of Madrid continue to reinforce their response devices to continue attending to the evacuees in anticipation that evacuations will continue in the coming hours. The nightmare continues.
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