Manolo Verdejo can be considered almost one of the veteran firefighters of the Villalba park: he has been practicing the profession for 24 years in the Community of Madrid. “I had never experienced anything like this in a forest fire,” he tells La Vanguardia in a telephone interview. “Three fires came together and we had to change the operation very quickly,” he admits.
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On Thursday he worked a 20-hour shift. He started work at eight-thirty in the morning and finished at 4 in the early morning. He was in the area of Encinar del Alberche and Villa del Prado. On Saturday he repeated his fight against the fire for 14 hours. That second day he was working in the area of Navaluenga, Fresnedilla de la Oliva and Colmenar del Arroyo.
“The perfect storm occurred”
“We were working in one area when the confluence of the three fires arrived,” he explains emotionally. “At first we were carrying out our duties in the Villa del Prado fire in the Community of Madrid and we were notified that the Almorox fire was coming, in Castilla-La Mancha.” It produced, he emphasizes, “the perfect storm: temperatures of forty degrees, wind gusts of 40, 50 and 60 kilometers per hour, humidity below 30 degrees…”. And he continues: “The big problem was the atmospheric conditions. The conditions were extreme.” Within a distance of 25 kilometers about 40 minutes by road, the fire joined and did not stop.
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“Change the operation in a few minutes”
When the three fires came together, he defends, “the fire department experienced a situation of maximum tension, as we had to move all the forces to San Martín de Valdeiglesias. “Even an electric car burned,” he recalls. “We had to change the operation in a few minutes, dismantle hoses, move trucks, refill those that were emptying with water… At that moment, our top priority was to protect people and depending on the progression of the fire we were given orders,” he says. And he repeats: “We had to fight to stop the progression of the fire and protect people, homes, cars, industrial warehouses…”. They were moments of great tension, even for professionals like Verdejo who by the end of this year will have been practicing the profession for 25 years in the Community of Madrid.
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Regarding breaks for his physical maintenance, he says, “we did not stop to eat and we drank water only when we could.” “The fire was advancing towards the residential areas and our mission was to protect people,” he concludes. “There were three large active fires, it was something unheard of.”
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