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…

Things that are different in Spain

Siesta Time: I still can’t get used to all the shops (apart from hypermarkets) being closed from about 1.30pm each day until 5.30pm, and Saturday afternoons after 11.30am. Saturdays are the worst for me. On a Saturday I want to get up late, spend leisurely time getting ready, and go shopping. But I can’t – unless I want to browse around a hypermarket. Not quite what I had in mind!

Going out to bars at bedtime: Bars over here only begin to come alive around 11pm. Now that is fine for a ‘night person’ like me and I’ll stagger home at 2am on a Saturday morning quite happy… but when you have to get up early because the shops shut at midday…. it just doesn’t fit!

Absolutely everything closed on a Sunday (apart from the local bar): Now I am a great believer that everyone deserves a day off with their family, so part of me agrees with Sunday ‘close down’ … but when most shops close by midday on Saturday, what do you do when you missed the chance to buy water and milk? Probably explains why Carrefour is so busy on a Saturday…

The ‘Evening Stroll’: Every evening around 6pm (later when it’s hot) all over Spain, you can see people strolling along the roads between villages. I used to think they had somewhere to go, but no, most of them were just strolling for the sake of it. They stroll in small groups or alone; they don’t seem to acknowledge other groups, they just stroll. Now this seems to be a good idea – good for the health certainly – except when those strolls are taken along busy or dangerous roads with no footpaths, as is most often the case. Which is why I have yet to participate in the evening stroll.

So many holidays!: In Spain there are ‘Saint’s Days’ when everyone (often including TV station workers, Telefonica workers, etc) has a holiday. Sometimes Saint’s Days are so close together that workers take the days off in between as well. On these occasions industry and commerce can grind to a halt for almost a week. And then there are Saints Days as extra birthdays. Everyone in Spain has a birthday and a Saint’s Day and most people insist on the right to take these as days off also. Must find out when mine is!

Tapas Bars: Other countries try to emulate these but usually fail miserably as they do not understand the concept of tapas. Tapas are served automatically with your drink; either placed as a selection at the bar or on your table, or delivered to you as you drink. And tapas are not just small, bite-sized delicacies: some are whole bocadillos or meals that you would pay a fortune for in a fast-food outlet. Yet in many areas of Andalucia tapas are still free. Our local bar has a reputation for serving the best tapas in the area and I have to agree. And it’s all free for the price of a beer or two. So if you just want to spend money on alcohol rather than food here you’ve got it made!

Spanish people actually like children: Yes, I know that many of us profess to like children… as long as they don’t make a noise or interrupt us when we are talking; as long as they sit quietly in the shopping trolley in the supermarket and don’t ask us for anything; and generally, as long as they are ’seen but not heard’. But people in Spain actually seem to enjoy childrens’ company! In Spain you can see children in the hypermarket playing with display toys and no one complains; or you will see them happily playing on the swings outside the local bar or even joining their parents inside. Either way they will join in with conversations with no complaints from the adults. Carnivals have special themes for children. On ‘King’s Night’, for example, the ‘Kings’ and all their helpers travel on carnival vans (or tractors in the villages), throwing thousands of sweets to the crowds. Children rush to scoop them up in their buckets. There are no ’safety barriers’; no policia saying “stand back”, because it’s a childrens’ night and everyone in the crowd watches out for them.

I think I would have loved to grow up as a child in Spain!

Those are just a few of the things I have noticed so far that are different about life in Spain (certainly when compared to the UK anyway). But I’m sure I’ll think of more to write about later!