Hell of fire in Spain and Portugal, six dead firefighters and pilgrims fleeing from Santiago’s journey: “Never seen anything like that”

One step after another, between dust and sweat, thousands of people every year travel the path of Santiago. But today, in Spain, the steps have stopped. Not for tiredness or contemplation, but for a wall of smoke, ash and flames that is transforming the north-west of the country into an unrecognizable landscape. The Civil Protection Authorities have launched an unpublished and dramatic notice: stop the path between Astorga, Ponferrada and Bembibre so as not to risk life. The path, a symbol of travel and spirituality, surrendered to the greatest fire that Spanish history remembers.

The numbers of this catastrophe are impressive and tell an unprecedented devastation. From the beginning of the year, according to the European information on forest fires (Effis), over 343,862 hectares of vegetation have gone in smoke. A historical record that exceeds the already dramatic data of 2022, positioning Spain as the country of the European Union most affected by the bonfires, even in front of Portugal.

The human budget is very heavy: there are already six victims, all rescuers. To these are added 31,000 people displaced in advance, forced to abandon their homes in front of the advance of the fire. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists are blocked, with the railway lines of the high speed between Madrid and the Galicia interrupted for days. The air is irressable, saturated with smoke and toxic gases. “How sad to see such a beautiful nature burned, she holds her heart what is happening,” he tells the local TV Hit Beto Garcia, a Portuguese ‘walking’ forced to take refuge in a hostel, with his face covered by a mask to protect himself from a starvation storm.

The flames have reached the heart of natural parks and reserves of the biosphere, such as the Picos of Europe, forcing the closure of famous hiking paths throughout the continent. The situation is so serious that the Spanish defense minister, Margarita Robles, called it “a Dante and unprecedented situation”, never seen in the twenty years of history of the emergency unit of the army (UME), currently lined up with thousands of military.

The causes

But what has this hell unleashed? According to experts and authorities, the answer lies in a combination of factors. On the one hand, a wave of extreme heat that has gripped the country for over two weeks, with peaks of 45 degrees Celsius, the longest third ever recorded. An anomalous heat that has annoyed the vegetation, making it a perfect fuel. Minister Robles herself pointed out her finger at the deep causes of these hot temperatures: “Fires have particular characteristics due to climate change and this enormous heat wave,” said Cadena Ser.

On the other hand, there is the hand of man. The Ministry of the Interior has made it known that 27 people have been arrested since June and 92 are under investigation with the suspicion of arson. A criminal shadow that adds to the climatic-environmental crisis.

Faced with such a vast fire front, Spain activated the European Civil Protection mechanism on 11 August, receiving defined assistance “unprecedented” from other EU countries, including Italy. But for those who live there, for those who have lost everything, the future is an expanse of ash. In Palacios de Jamuz, a small town where fire has devoured entire rows of houses, the residents look with pain what remains. “The most difficult thing is to see young people who had all their lives in front and who went away,” said a resident, Delia Lobato. “We will sow again and if I don’t see it grow well, my children will do it.”

While Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urges a “state pact” on climate change, the only, shy good news comes from the meteorology agency, which provides for an attention of the heat wave. A hope to which thousands of firefighters are clinging, soldiers and volunteers to win a battle -learned, fought against an enemy who, metro after metro, is erasing the green heart of Spain.

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