Josefina Maestre, an RNE journalist, was a first-hand witness to the origin of the forest fire caused on the San Martin de Valdeiglesias (Madrid) road, where a burning vehicle caused the fire that spread from the hillside to the mountain to become one of the worst disasters.
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The burning vehicle that caused the forest fire collided with the rear of the journalist’s car, who was with a colleague (she occupied a back seat); but they could do nothing to stop the flames.
Josefina Maestre was traveling in the back seat when she suddenly observed that a vehicle following them “was on fire,” so they decided to pull over to the shoulder to avoid a bigger accident. “The car was completely in flames and it rammed us, it rammed us for a few meters and we continued a few more meters because it started to explode and produce explosions and we thought it could harm us,” she explains.
Her colleague got out of the car, grabbed a fire extinguisher, but it was impossible to get close and put out the flames because “the smoke was getting blacker and denser, and, furthermore, there was a lot of risk,” she explains.
They called 112, the Civil Guard arrived immediately, and an ambulance also arrived very quickly.
From there to the catastrophe
Mestre explains that at no time did she think (“it was unthinkable”) that this accidental event (she doesn’t know why that vehicle was burning) could cause a fire of such magnitude, because, once the car was on the shoulder, it immediately ignited the vegetation. “What I could see is that the flames covered the terrain and spread across the terrain at great speed,” she emphasizes.
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She doesn’t know what could have caused the vehicle fire, whether it was due to excessive speed or if it was out of control. “We thought that driving would slow the car down and that, since he had realized it was on fire, he would brake; and we also came to think that, since the underside was on fire, the brakes weren’t responding,” she adds.
In any case, “the strange thing is that when we pulled over to the shoulder, the car didn’t swerve to avoid us and almost crashed into us. “It’s hard to know,” she adds, “we assume the Civil Guard will find out the causes. The important thing is that the two people who got out of the vehicle were alive.
“It was when they crashed into us that they were able to brake because by not being able to brake they couldn’t get out,” she adds.
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Dented car
The result is that the rear of the vehicle was completely dented from the impact. She suffered a contusion but nothing serious, while her colleague has cervical damage; but “we are fine.” “It was the scare, it was distressing; but above all, it was the concern of knowing that behind us there was a car on fire that crashed into us…”, says this veteran environmental journalist.
In a matter of seconds, the vehicle, which remained stuck to the mountainside, began to cause a fire. “Explosions occurred and immediately the hillside began to burn and the fire began to spread many meters very quickly. As it was a wooded and bushy area, the fire spread very quickly,” she recounts.
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