Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos) (EFE).- Blackened trees turned into mere skeletons of burned branches and trunks, without any leaves, welcome visitors along the roads that reach Quintanilla del Coco, Santibáñez del Val and Santo Domingo de Silos, victims of the devastating forest fire that devastated a privileged enclave in the Arlanza region of Burgos a year ago.
With 2,500 burned hectares, 70 percent integrated into the Sabinares del Arlanza Natural Park, the fire that broke out on July 24, 2022 has been one of the most important in Burgos due to its social and environmental impact.
The flames of the forest fire forced the evacuation of five municipalities
The flames forced the evacuation of five municipalities (Santibáñez, Silos, Hacinas, Villanueva de Carazo and Carazo), some 500 residents rushed from their homes, including the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, at whose doors the fire remained.
Emeterio Martín, the mayor of the town, remembers it as “if it were yesterday”, especially because of its “virulence” since “in four hours the fire covered 10 kilometers”, with two fronts that ended up coming together in Silos, he explained to EFE.
The bell towers were no longer visible due to the smoke
“There was a moment when the two bell towers were no longer visible from the smoke that was in the town,” he recalled about the feeling of “rage, impotence and clenching teeth and fists” when seeing that the fire “got out of hand.”
The magnitude of the fire was such that “the embers jumped up to one hundred meters and, suddenly, where there was no fire, a tree caught fire”, without respecting natural firebreaks or those opened by the firefighting teams.
Domingo Pozo, the mayor of Quintanilla del Coco, was among the first to learn of the fire, which broke out after one in the afternoon on agricultural land where a combine harvester was working, according to the Civil Guard investigation.
There was no way to control the forest fire
“At that moment you don’t think about anything, you have to react and get out quickly,” he recalled to EFE, and despite the fact that all the neighbors rushed into the bush “there was no way to control it, it was impossible.”
Burgos was experiencing an intense heat wave in those days, aggravated in the Arlanza valley, with temperatures above 30 degrees and a strong, dry and hot wind, which pushed the flames.
To this was added the lack of cleanliness of the mountain, Pozo assured, and that the Mataviejas river was “full of branches”, which made it easier for the fire to move quickly from Quintanilla to Santibáñez del Val, the most affected municipality.
devoured by flames
The neighborhood below was literally devoured by the flames, which jumped from roof to roof without the firefighters being able to control it, a devastating image of which important traces still remain a year later.
Despite the fact that the reconstruction has begun, there are many houses that seem almost in ruins, awaiting an intervention project, without roofs, without windows or doors and still giving off the smell of smoke.
The mayoress, Ana María García, has reminded EFE that 87 properties were affected, with 11 houses completely destroyed; In Quintanilla del Coco, 12 buildings suffered damage, a figure similar to that of Silos.
García experienced the fire “with a lot of uncertainty and a bit of frustration”, but without fear, not even for his family who was in the town, since the distance allowed him to manage the catastrophe “calmly”.
He was in Asturias and, through the WhatsApp groups, he coordinated the evacuation of the residents to the towns free from the fire: “if I had been here I would have been nervous and I would have done much worse,” he assured.
The councilor remembers, yes, that the situation was chaotic, but a normal chaos given that a forest fire of this magnitude is “unexpected” and “exceeds anyone”, although she has criticized the fact that the indications of the neighbors were not taken into account.
“Rural people know how to tackle things, they know how to light a fire and they also know how to put it out,” he insisted, and in this case he knew where there was water to recharge that first fire truck that had to wait six hours for relief.
No help one year later
The rage, impotence and desolation of the first moments have turned into a strong malaise against the administrations a year later, since the initial promises have remained in “borage water”.
The Santo Domingo de Silos City Council has had to assume a series of costs, around 71,000 euros, and has faced them with its own funds, through employee payrolls and renouncing investments.
“We have not received a penny,” the mayor lamented, “we have only been approved an invoice of 3,000 euros by the Junta de Castilla y León, which we have not yet received.”
And that “hurts” because, as Martín recalled, he has been working for the council for sixteen years, “without salary, without two extraordinary ones, without a month’s vacation, without retirement and putting his time, his life and his knowledge at the service of the nation”.
What has been accelerated by the administration is the cleaning of the burnt forest, with the removal of the wood, which is being used for green energy or restoration, and the work of repopulating the affected area.EFE