Those who have suffered the cruelty of the great fire devouring the southwest of Madrid say that you have to experience something like this to believe it. And that whoever tries to put themselves in their shoes will fall short. “At the beginning of the week, we saw the Guadalajara fire on the news, and it made your hair stand on end…”, begin to recount Luz and Carlos, residents of Pelayos de la Presa, evacuated during the early hours of Friday.
Read more The Government will declare the areas devastated by the fires as severely affected
Those images of flames incinerating hectares in their path, as if they were the girl from The Ring, seemed to come out of the television. And there they were, amidst immense smoke, shouts from civil guards, and a rain of ash. They were put on a bus and taken to the Miguel Delibes sports center in Villaviciosa de Odón, where 225 residents evacuated from their village and the town of Chapinería have been staying overnight ever since.
“We know nothing, we have zero information about whether our house is one of those burned, or not. We have our whole lives in there, our photos and memories… The uncertainty is killing us,” this couple, who arrived in Madrid three years ago from Peru, explained yesterday. “We feel this land as our own. And passing by the San Juan reservoir and seeing how the whole mountain was in flames, burning… I could only cry,” Luz added.
Weary from the many idle hours inside this sports center, some families distracted themselves with card games alongside their young children. Others did puzzles. And others, like Agapita, 82, took refuge in sacred reading. “I am very religious, and today [referring to yesterday] is the day of Saint James the Apostle, so I am reading the hymn to the saint. This helps me to be optimistic,” she said, visibly grateful for all the warmth with which she had been welcomed. Although, at first, she did not want to leave her home. “I refused… I’m very old now, and I don’t care if I live five more years or less. So I said I wasn’t leaving, that I would close the doors and windows and let God’s will be done.” Finally, she had to obey the authorities’ orders and, along with her husband, Félix (90 years old), they were assigned to this emergency pavilion.
The urgency of the evacuation and nerves worked against them. “We only had time to collect the medicines… But I’m positive. I believe my house will be fine because we keep the plot very clean since we were shepherds and know the countryside well.” This veteran couple, originally from Navaluenga, were transhumant until they settled in Chapinería. “Dry firewood, if not collected, is gunpowder in the face of fire. And there is less and less livestock clearing the grass…”, she sadly pointed out.
Aspiring to be a support in these delicate days, the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Getafe, Monsignor José María Avendaño, went around shaking hands with each of the affected people settled yesterday in Villaviciosa. “I seek to convey something essential to them: that they are not alone. I want them to feel that there is a heart that suffers and beats with them in these very difficult moments,” assured the religious man, who, “following Jesus’ example,” tried “to be close to the sick and those who suffer.”
Cristóbal, originally from Bolivia, was one of the convalescents the cleric referred to. On the same Thursday the fire broke out, he cut his right hand with an angle grinder while working on a house under construction in Navacerrada. After being treated at the hospital, and with his arm completely bandaged, he left accompanied by other family members towards Pelayos, but they could no longer pass. Yesterday, still in his “work clothes” visibly deteriorated with paint stains, he recounted his story: “First they sent us to Navas del Rey… But on Friday, when that town was also evacuated, they sent us to Villaviciosa. Since we didn’t know where to go, we spent that night inside a construction site we found. It was horrible, without light or water… The next morning we asked what we could do and they told us about this sports center.”
Just 13 kilometers from Villaviciosa, a cultural center has also been set up in Brunete to help those affected by the fires. “We were on vacation. We spent four days in Portugal and, as soon as we returned, we could no longer access Pelayos… My father is still there, but I can’t reach him. Some neighbors told us he’s fine, but we haven’t been able to talk yet because communications are down,” said another evacuee.
Next to him, Gabriel and Emilia, a couple from Chapinería, were having a sandwich on a lawn. “My wife ran out in a panic… She only grabbed two cats, she didn’t remember me or the medicines,” the husband recalled, jokingly. She downplayed the humor: “I left two other cats in the house because I didn’t have time to find them… But they told us that no house has suffered damage, and that reassures me.” Emilia herself highlighted the “exquisite” and “wonderful” treatment they received at the cultural center, even saying they were “better than in a hotel”: “The catering is high quality, they even gave us salmon…”.
A gratitude also shared by Nati, who at 78 years old doesn’t understand how she finds herself in such a situation. Although, compared to other neighbors, like David, she feels privileged. “He has been officially notified that his home has burned down… This is very hard. It brings out the best and worst in people. Donations of food and clothing are constant, but I have also seen how certain citizens take entire bags of t-shirts or hygiene products made available to the displaced. I imagine they won’t have to shop for months that way. But that’s not right either. They shouldn’t abuse the good faith of others because we are all having an equally bad time.”
