A white rotating machine from the Takeuchi brand weighing eight tons with a hydraulic hammer breaking rock -commonly known as pica pica-, owned by the company Reforestaciones El Fresno, caused the largest fire in the history of Spain in the Burgohondo mountains in Ávila, which has burned more than 50,000 hectares of land.
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The fire started last Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. when this vehicle was carrying out illegal work to open a new path along the ridge of the Gredos mountains in this municipality of the Alberche Valley. Specifically, it was working to open a new branch from an existing path that leads from Burgohondo to the town of Navarrevisca, intending to connect it with the mountain ridge, where cows from the local ranchers graze, associated around the Pasture Society of the Sierra Umbrías de Burgohondo.
According to EL MUNDO, the machine, driven at that time by an operator from Santa Cruz del Valle known as El Perejil and who was arrested by the Civil Guard, was using a hammer to break the stone of the forest road and a large bucket to clear the way and remove the rubble it was leaving behind. The work had been carried out for several days despite the existing prohibition by the authorities due to the very high risk of fire, without being warned.
During this work, it caused a spark that triggered the fire which immediately spread through the vegetation in the area, mainly composed of low scrub and broom bushes.
This newspaper has had exclusive access to images from the first minutes of the fire, when the first fire crew arrived in the area and the operator confessed on site that he had caused the fire with the machine, proceeding to move it from the area where the first fire spots broke out.
The images in possession of this newspaper show one of the tools used by this heavy vehicle and the recent tracks of the chains on the forest road it was extending.
According to eyewitnesses, El Perejil claimed that he had caused the spark with the chains that move the vehicle and that he was already preparing to remove it. He added that a trailer was waiting for him in the town to take it away permanently. The machine was brought into that area known as Los Horcajuelos, La Serraílla, and Lanchamala from the Mijares pass.
EL MUNDO has contacted this operator, who has refused to make statements. Nor has the person responsible for the unlicensed forestry work company, who immediately deleted all their images on social media, wanted to comment.
The one who commissioned the illegal work was the Burgohondo Ranchers Association, whose president has been questioned by the Civil Guard and admitted to having hired the machine that caused the fire.
When asked by this newspaper, he acknowledged that he turned to the company Reforestaciones El Fresno, but specified that he never knew that it was going to use a pica pica hammer to open the new path, which aimed to facilitate access for the livestock in the upper part of the mountain range.
“We did commission the work, yes, but we never knew it was going to use that hammer,” he specified. He added that he cannot give further explanations and refers to the investigation: “Everything is judicialized and I cannot say anything more.”
The operator, as this newspaper revealed, changed his initial version, confirmed by several eyewitnesses, and later told the Civil Guard that he was not performing any work at that moment and was only removing the machine, trying in this way to disassociate himself from what happened despite being the only person present in that area.
The firefighters immediately went to the fire site and warned that they could not access it as the fire had spread to a ravine. Hence, they requested the intervention of aerial means, which also had difficulty due to poor visibility caused by the smoke. The lack of intervention by water bombers and helicopters caused it to spread at a dizzying speed.
