“We were one step away from losing the beauty we have. It is a miracle that we are still here, with the two giants that have been stalking us.” Juan Antonio Garrido still can’t believe that the Enchanted Forest, the botanical garden with plant sculptures that he manages in San Martín de Valdeiglesias and that thousands of families visit every year, has come out unscathed from the fires.
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Since the flames began to punish Ávila and the Sierra Oeste of Madrid, the owner of this natural space has continuously followed through an app the evolution of those red spots indicating danger, seeing how from two different flanks the fire approached the forest.
“We found ourselves surrounded by two giants of fire. We went through the absolute fear,” he told EL MUNDO with the flames now farther away. “We are amazed because we thought we would lose everything at any moment,” he added.
The fire, he pointed out, stayed barely 150 meters from the forest he has been shaping for 15 years and also from Dinolandia, the outdoor exhibition of articulated dinosaurs that this businessman inaugurated last April in the same lower area.
But also, much closer, he had to dodge the regrowths that have appeared almost at the doors of both spaces. “Five or six trees caught fire 120 meters away. They warned me one night, at 4 in the morning, that the fire was very close. I called 112 and told them we had large water tanks that if the fire touched them would melt because they are covered with plastic. Fortunately, they sent a patrol and put it out. Thanks to that we were lucky,” Juan Antonio recalled.
Those water tanks, which are used for irrigating the park, have also been fundamental for extinguishing the fire, as aerial means have used them to douse the closest flames given their strategic location.
“I am grateful to God, to the professionals who intervened, the firefighters, the UME, the authorities… but also to the neighbors, who have made a huge effort,” the businessman said. He felt especially indebted to the latter, as they have taken care of safeguarding his business by putting out other smaller regrowths and creating, together with the forest employees, a seven-meter firebreak in case the flames approached at any moment.
“Many volunteers from the town have come with shovels and their own vehicles and have put out the regrowths. Even the forest firefighters of San Martín, while on their day off, have come. These days I have seen great displays of solidarity,” Juan Antonio added about that “extraordinary help” his neighbors have given him.
“With this monster – he said referring to the fire – we depended on the town, which mobilized, because the scale was so tremendous that there was a lack of resources,” he denounced.
The owner of the Enchanted Forest said he feels “a deep gratitude but also anger at how abandoned the mountain is.” And he lamented what the neighbors who have not been so lucky are going through. “It is a shame, the people who have lost farms, their homes…”.
With fear still in his body, and knowing that the fire is still not controlled or extinguished and everything could still change, he feels fortunate and knows that what he has lived through is “a miracle.” “There is the hand of God”, he added.
A unique space in Europe
Juan Antonio set up the Enchanted Forest 15 years ago, a unique botanical garden in Europe that has more than 300 living plant sculptures with species and plants from different ecosystems, growing scattered among paths, mazes, waterfalls, fountains, and streams. In its 25,000 m2, located in the surroundings of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, they hold night shows and meditations.
Next to this space, which 35,000 people visit each year among families and school groups, last April the businessman opened Dinolandia, an outdoor exhibition of articulated dinosaurs.
Both businesses have been closed to the public for a week and Juan Antonio still does not know when they will be able to return to normal and open again. Although he is clear that it will be even more complicated than his daily routine. “It is 15 years of effort to move forward, with sculptures that are trimmed every day. It is not an easy thing,” he told this newspaper.
Now, with the surroundings devastated by fire, everything will become more difficult. “We had invested everything in building Dinolandia. We do not have the capacity to withstand such a tremendous drop in visits,” he said, making a call to the public to now be the ones to save the Sierra Oeste of Madrid.
To try to attract the public and help recover the area, Juan Antonio detailed to this newspaper that he will put the tickets for both parks at half price and that he will launch a campaign to water a little tree for those who come so that, together, they help repopulate the environment that the fire has taken away.
