Spanish views from a small town

Fire is our bane. Yesterday's fire was small - not even a hectare. But there have been others that have left behind scorched earth as if the Russians were retreating from Napoleon's army. Last year's was especially bad. It happened in a warmer and dryer than usual March, with a strong north wind, and extended all along the hills, touching different villages, where the householders fought it off with what they had - hoses, buckets, branches, shovels. It left behind desolation, that is still visible.  In 2006, fires again surrounded us. It burned right to the edge of the road below our house, and roared down to the next villages. That was an exceptionally frightful one. I had taken our nine year old daughter to cousins, away from the fire, but my father had refused to leave, and went to bed. My husband used a cistern with a hundred liter capacity, normally used to spread pesticides on crops. He filled it with clean water and went to the edge of our property, where the fir...

We're in a long period of drought. This month of October has been abnormally warm. Everything is dry. Even though it drizzled a bit last month, the soil beneath the surface is dry as paper. Warnings about climate change have abounded for some years now. Yet Galicia has not changed its forestry policies. At the beginning of every summer the regional government hires a certain number of firefighters, and in October their contract comes to an end and they go home. This past Thursday, despite fires raging in the provinces of Ourense and Lugo, five hundred firefighters were sent home at the end of their contracts. At no point in time is anyone hired to clean out the enormous undergrowth in woods close to villages and towns. Local property owners have an obligation to do so, but it's not always feasible. Many are older folk who can't get out a scythe like they used to, nor a modern-day brush cutter. Younger folk may not have the time to do so, and there are some who don't...

This morning the sun rose with a reddish-pink tinge, even redder than yesterday's. There was a dark haze in the air and the distant hills were difficult to see. The smell of wood smoke hung in the air, slightly bitter, smelling of dead greenery. The fires that were raging a few kilometers away have left behind their reminders of all that was destroyed.  Exactly ten years ago, we had devastating forest fires all along the coast. For two weeks we couldn't see blue sky, and could feel the smoke in our throats. Thousands of people feared for their homes and livelihoods, and a few died. This August, someone thought it would be nice to repeat those trying times.  So, who sets the se fires that threaten to sw allow everything into their red, broiling maws and s pit out black ash? A variety of people for a va riety of reasons. There have been ca ses where a fire fighter with a temporary contract has set one or two just to be hired and get paid. I think these are the least. There a...