Pictures Of Heath Fires Near Our Village In Spain

The weather here in Southern Spain is very, very hot at the moment. Most days temperatures pass 37 degrees centigrade (99 Fahrenheit). Some days they go well above this.

Going outside during the hottest parts of the day is a pastime endured only by ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’. More sensible people (including us) remain in their homes (or the local bar) in the relative cool of the air con. The risk of sunstroke is too high to be ignored and the sheer exhaustion summer heat brings is not to be taken lightly.

High temperatures in Spain are causing other ‘problems to health’ as well. Over the last few weeks, heath fires and forest fires have raged in many parts of Spain. We have watched them on TV and hoped they didn’t come this way. But now they have reached our village.

Is that a helicopter?

A few days ago, we were sitting in our lounge, when the peace was interrupted by the loud drone of a helicopter. The noise was so loud, it sounded like the vehicle was outside the door. We have the occasional ‘helicopter visit’ (usually by the Spanish trafficos, trying to catch out unsuspecting speeding motorists), but they never fly this close.

So we went up to the roof terrace to have a look.

Whats That Smoke?

We arrived in time to see a fire helicopter pulling away, after it had dropped gallons of water onto a heath fire which was raging all across the mountain at the top of our village.

The shot above is of only one fire – there were several burning away all along the top of the mountain.

Here’s one from another angle:

Heath Fire

The smoke you see in the foreground, is from the fire closer to the village that the helicopter crew were trying to put out first.

Heath fires and forest fires in Spain are hard to put out. Access for the usual fire service vehicles is often difficult, owing to narrow or non-existant roads. In any case, it takes even a speeding ‘Bombero’ (Fire Service) vehicle many wasted minutes to get to a relatively isolated mountain area. We have to rely upon the skill and dexterity of the helicopter crews from the Spanish Civil Protection Unit.

And, as in this case, one helicopter…

Getting Close...

The helicopter flew away to fill its ‘bambi bucket’ with more water. We waited and watched the largest of the heath fires raging and getting ever closer to the pine trees at the top of the village. It seemed like an age before the helicopter returned. It was actually about seven or eight minutes before we heard the drone again and saw…

The Fire Helicopter In The Far Distance

The fire helicopter was returning. It was so far away it is only a spot in the photograph above.

The helicopter crew had to do a number of ‘runs’ to put all the fires out. The shot below was taken after three separate attempts to damp down the biggest fire, and the fire was still fighting back.

This Heath Fire Took A Lot Of Damping Down

But eventually the helicopter crew got the upper hand of the heath fire. The shot below was taken after a couple more ‘dampening runs’. The crew returned with more water, to put out all the residual fires around the main one (and the smaller ones still burning away across the mountain top).

The Heath Fire Almost Out

And eventually peace reigned again in our little Spanish village.

I’ll tell you what. I wouldn’t want to have been a member of that helicopter crew. They had to ‘dive bomb’ those heath fires again and again to drop the ‘water bombs’ from their helicopter. That takes real guts.

As an afterthought. No one seems to know why the fire started. It could simply have been the intense heat of the sun working on a broken bottle or a discarded cigarette end, and the warm breeze fannning and spreading the flames. It could even have been a ‘controlled burn’ of scrubland which got out of hand (although no one is saying this and it is unlikely to have been the case).

Either way, if you are travelling in Spain this summer (or anywhere else where it is really hot). Please don’t throw fag ends out of your car window (or leave used bottles lying around).

The results may not be nice…