We have just had a couple of extremely warm days (38 degrees) considering the fact that it is still only April. Sadly, since we had a pretty dry winter, this has led to four forest fires this weekend.
The first one, was reported at 9:15pm on Friday night, and is still smouldering now, although it is under control. This was in our valley, and we have been able to see the smoke during the day, and the flames at night, even though it was some 15 miles away.
I have not been able to work out where the helicopters were going, in order to get their water, but they have been flying overhear non-stop for the last 2 days. When the sun goes down, they have to stop, and the poor firemen are then left to do their best overnight.
The helicopters actually flew over Bellus reservoir to get their water from somewhere near Ontinyent, or Enguera, which seemed rediculous. One person did say, that the water from Bellus was too expensive, but surely the cost of flying further would have cancelled that out! (I didn't know that the fire brigade had to pay for their water - but I guess someone has to!)
This afternoon, we toured around a little, and saw that one helicopter was taking water from very near the fire (Rotova), but the others were still travelling a long way. The fire was out by then, and they were just keeping on top of it, making sure none of the smouldering parts caught fire again.
As far as I know, no-one has been hurt, and no houses actually damages, but a very large area of forest and mountainside has been destroyed. Terrible for those nearby. Thank goodness we have cut down the trees nearest to our house now.
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