There are at least two men whose name and surname is Oscar Puente in Spain. Both are from Castilla y León and both are large. One, which these days has been engaged with the regional executive of the popular Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. The other is a 52 -year -old farmer resident in Tábara, one of the localities of the province of Zamora who. “No, I am not the minister,” the second one, the second, joked on Wednesday, while facing less than a span with the still hot flames in the fields where he raises his cattle, with the smoke in the throat and the view hindered by the ashes, in the middle of a terrifying stamp. When crossing the road that is accessed to that point, the interior temperature of the cars rises in microseconds letting the fire feel like it was inside the vehicle.
The lands that are leased bridge – the farmer – are about 200 hectares near the town of Abejera, evicted for more than two days by the virulence of the fire. Like him and his gang, dozens of volunteers have joined the extinction tasks with the members of the Junta de Castilla y León and. They are neighbors of the affected towns that fight body against body with the fire for fear of losing their homes, to which the animals of the farms that aran their orchards end. A fear raised by the lack of troops, those consulted in different parts of Castilla y León argue. Since Monday, two volunteers have died trying to save their people, Quintana and Congosto, in León: Abel Ramos, 35, and Jaime Aparicio, 38. But the death of the first, does not stop them.
“Are you not afraid?”
“What do we do?” Are we going home? There are few means, you have to do everything possible to save ours.
With “ours”, bridge refers to cattle of Alistian cows that keeps fenced in a farm meters down where he and his gang try to quell the fire. The group consists of seven men and a woman between 25 and 40 years. They are close to the farmer also from Tábara. And that they have come to their call to try to save the cattle. Faced with the terror of the flames, they wield everyone to one. “The town is before, if we do not help each other …”, laments Mario Martín, 36, who spent eight working in forest helicopters.
In the Bridge Volunteer Gang there are those who are dedicated to agriculture and construction. They also have a mountain engineer. Everyone knows the behavior of fire well, with which they already fought in the summer of 2022, in the serious fires of the Sierra de la Culebra. “Then people also came from outside to help Tábara,” recalls Puente. They do not work alone, but have joined a fire truck that appears from the fog. With the chief of the retainer, under the Junta de Castilla y León, they exchange instructions with to work in Commandita.
The volunteer gang is equipped with blades and some backpacks with water and hoses. Several work monkeys, others, such as bridge, go in a short shirt and long mountain pants, and cover their mouths with masks or scarves. To the place, between the towns of Abejera and Tábara, they have arrived in their own vehicles but by livestock and hidden roads, to overcome the controls of the Civil Guard that keep the road cut. Although they have accessed that point avoiding agents, firefighters collaborate in coordination with them without major problem. The cut track is surrounded by burned fields, still smoking and windmills, which blows intensely. An abrupt change caused that, a day before, Abejera would pass in minutes to be safe to have the fire in the first line of the houses. Some members of this group of volunteers also went there to attend their neighbors. “If we don’t turn it off, no one turns off,” Martin complains.
“Objects immediately” the indications
The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, I have made a call to the volunteers who fight forest fires in different autonomous communities, both in Castilla y León and Extremadura and Galicia mainly, so that they “immediately comply” the indications of the authorities that deal with those “complex” situations. In an interview with TVE, the minister has also made a request to the whole of society to attend the calls of the “authorities” and the Civil Guard so that the residents of the affected areas abandon their places when there is a risk situation. In that line, the head of Interior has emphasized that “we are in situations of maximum risk and the ones that best give the indications are the authorities.”
But, on the ground, the criticisms of the political class and the lack of means is fuel for volunteers to continue trying to stop the flames with their own hands. When the flames begin to fan, bridge and their gang escape in a hurry from the place leaving only the fire truck waiting for a hydroneave, which appears within a few minutes. “It is not the first fire or it will be the last one,” says the farmer when marching.
