Fires in Sierra Cabrera

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Fires at Cortijo Cabrera July 2009

It had been a good day when we arrived home on Tuesday 14^th July. I had just seen the surgeon and we all agreed my op had been a great success.

We had planned to celebrate by luching at Finca Listonero but changed our minds and went to Garrucha for fish instead.

After lunch we drove toward Cabrera from Turre seeing and smelling an approaching fire.  When we got home our neighbours let us know that the village was on standby for evacuation.

We only had a few minutes to get our things together before the evacuation started.

By this time we could no longer see the mountain for smoke.

We moved to a hotel on the beach at Mojacar. 

There was little information coming from Cabrera. Everyone had left and information was scarce though reports from afar suggested the whole mountain was in flames. There was also a large group of fire and army personnel, with helicopters, who had set up headquarters on the edge of Turre.

As we sat on the hotel terrace, sipping Gin, the sun was blood red with the smoke from the fire and we heard the whole mountain was alight. Thoughts of Nero came to mind! 

Remarkably, late on Wednesday afternoon the area was sufficiently safe for us to return to the village.  We drove in from the Cortijo Grande road and all the scrub was devastated. The greens of the golf course look bizarre amongst the burnt scrubland.

The first obvious casualty was Finca Listonero where we had been planning lunch. 

The house was an old style farmhouse with a wooden roof, which had simply burnt away, taking with it a treasure trove of works of art and antiques. What seemed odd was that the close vegetation seems relatively untouched.

As we drove up the valley the full extent of the devastation became apparent.

Typically, this type of mountain slope would have looked like this the previous day.

Yet amazingly the fire had passed right through the edge of the village only damaging a few houses.

 This property, on the edge, was one that burnt down ten years ago. However, this time it was only scorched.

Above the village the scoched rocks seem to strech for miles.

All we suffered was a lot of ash. Amazingly, by late Thursday afternoon all services had been restored.  We were lucky, many parts of Cabrera were serviced by overhead cables and they did not get their supply back until the folllowing thursday. Meanwhile we look up anxiously whenever we hear a helicopter go over. In total within a few hours nearly 12,000 acres of mountain burnt. It seems likely that the fire was started by lightning

Thursday always seemed likely to be a difficult day.  The forecast was for hot weather and westerly winds. By midday the temperature was over 40C and the humidity was down to 8% and the strong west winds were blowing ash onto the terraces that had just been cleaned.

The first indications of trouble were  the goats strolling casually off the mountain in the mid afternoon. Normally they leave where they have been grazing in the late evening.  Indeed we often spend the evenings with binoculars watching them move toward their mountain pens. They seem to have many different places where they spend the night.

Then just before four in the afternoon flames appeared on the top of the mountain.

It only took 8 minutes to envelop several hundred meters of mountain and was heading toward us.

Once again we were told to prepare for evacuation.  

That morning we had had a burglar alarm fitted. The electrician was late because he was dealing with problems caused by the reconnected power supplies.  While Kate had cleaned the terraces I had been putting all are documents back into files. 

This time however there was a new system – important files had been placed where they could be lifted straight from the cabinet into a suitcase.  We were prepared, but we did not think that we would leave because the fire seemed to be under control and moving away from us.

However, in spite to the flames appearing to lessen the smoke was filling the valley below cutting off the road to Turre.

Then through the smoke it became clear the a part of the distant mountains were ablaze. These were the areas were we would watch the goats. We felt relief that as long as the winds remained to the west we would be spared.  However, we were also aware that the flames were being driven toward Turre and Mojacar.

Suddenly the fire burst through just a few hundred meters away.  The area that was burning we called the hidden meadow.  Its not immediately visible and we found it during the spring when it had many wild flowers. After rainy periods we often found the footprints of a very large cat in along the edges of the rainwater pools: a wildcat or perhaps a lynx?  Then you begin to think of the wildlife. The rabbits and foxes could perhaps run but what of the lizards and snakes? And had the young of the bee-eaters, who were nesting in holes in these rocks, fledged?  Fortunately, I think they had.

A few minutes later we were told to evacuate.  It was a precaution because although the fire was not apparently heading toward us a change of wind could have caused trouble. As we drove out we saw another fire on Cortijo Grande.  If this had taken hold there would have been no way off the mountain.

We phoned our hotel on Mojacar Playa but that was full. Just as well, because the fire was heading that way and much of the playa was evacuated onto the beaches. Two evacuations in one day would have been too much. As we left we found that many of the roads to the coast around Mojacar were closed. We made our way to Garrucha where we had a room in a charming hotel. From the roof we could see the fire at least 10 Kms away.  This was the last photo of the night because after going to the bar to get a drink I got stuck in the lift for 45 minutes with a glass of pastis and a glass of water for company. Given that I could not get anybodys attention it was, under the circumstances, quite alarming.

Early in the morning we were told it was safe to return. As we drove back we could see Mojacar pueblo in the distance it appears to be surrounded by blackened hills. In fact the scene around Mojacar is very similar to that around Cabrera with the fire going close to buildings but not damaging that many. The difference is the numbers of people involved. The whole village was evacuated toward the sea. So were all the apartments and hotels along the sea front.  Probably 3000 people were moved in a few hours.

Then we drove up the narrow road from Turre.  There was a point on this road where you went through a gap between two large rocks and entered this green paradise.  Now there is little left apart from some cooked oranges.

The fire had not advanced much further than when we left. But the devastation on the distant hills was total. After the last fire we still had our view. Now that view is very different.  The mountains used to be softly textured with many different shades of green.  Now they are brown where the underlying rock has been exposed and black with soot.  

The terraces on our house that Kate had cleared the previous morning were covered in ash again. They needed to be cleared else they blow into the house.  The heat was intense and the airconditioning sucked in the burning smell. At least it should be cooler tomorrow – less than 40C! 

Positively, I was able to physically cope with the crises much better than last week.  I think I can now pronounce myself recovered.

We now live in area of green that stretches at the most for 500 meters in any direction.  Outside that area there is a burnt and blackened landscape.  

Three days later a flock of goats calmly walked back to their pens in the evening sun. I assume the flock had split with one half going away to the south out of the fires path. However, we have heard than a number died because their hoofs could not cope with the hot earth.

Kate's reponse to our new landscape in pastel.

Reanimación

The first time I heard this word, I was being wheeled from the operating theatre to “reanimación” where I was to stay for the next few hours.  Kate had managed to intercept the trolley to tell me they had done the big operation – but, from the way I was feeling, I think I knew that anyway!  When I left “reanimación” for the ward I was not feeling that much more animated but it was a beginning.  Of course the literal translation of the word (recovery or resuscitation) does not convey the same imagery to the English speaker.  By the time of the second fire I was physically well on the road to recovery.  Perhaps that is why I started to wonder how long the “reanimación” of the landscape would take.

At first there were very few birds around (except for sparrows) but after a few days the scops owl returned to haunt our nights. Then a week after the second fire the bee-eaters started to fly over the burnt out areas.    Several neighbours have heard and seen wild boar around the village, probably driven in by the lack of food in the burnt out “matorral”.  However, the goats were moved after a few days, there being little left for them to eat.

The damage is far more extensive than first reported, with some 7,500 hectares burnt.  The first fire was more extensive burning more than 5,000 hectares but the second was closer to centres of population with reportedly 10,000 people evacuated. The human population has, on the whole, adapted well and most of the services were restored within a week.  Although as you drive to Mojacar you pass through a desolated landscape, in the town and on the beach you are not aware of any changes.

The dining room and most of Finca Listonero (our favourite restaurant) was destroyed.  This was all that is left of the table where I had lunch the day I went into hospital and where I had my first meal out after the operation. It seems to have survived better than the rest of the room.