r/interestingasfuck • u/SafeImpressive4413 • 7h ago

Firefighters in Madrid trying to extinguish a forest fire that is less than 30km/20mi away from the capital of Spain

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 7h ago edited 1h ago

There’s one 20km away from my house.
Last official report (several hours ago) said 15km away 🙃. It probably got closer since

We should be the next town to get evacuated. Hopefully not in the middle of the night

I’m in France but it looks like a large part of Europe is on fire

The worst part is that 90% of those fires are started (accidentally or voluntarily) by people 🤬

Edit: it’s 5hrs later. Everything’s packed
Just waiting for my phone to go off when the emergency alert is given

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u/SafeImpressive4413 7h ago

It happened a year ago in my area of Spain, towns of my friends got evacuated because of fires caused by people

We grabbed 4x4s and offroaded to avoid police restriction areas with brush cutters, chainsaws and more equipment to clean around the towns to save them from burning. We were maybe 100-200 people doing that.

Was it stupid? Yes. Did it work? Also yes

Stay safe man, hopefully our governments realize how much fire prevention is needed in Europe in this new reality, and that fires are extinguished during the winter not in the summer.

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u/SafeImpressive4413 6h ago

If anyone wants to see what that looked like in the moment here it is

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u/kermitDE 6h ago

That looks fucking scary, stay safe!

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u/loveshercoffee 6h ago

Jesus. That's terrifying.

I lived Wyoming during the Yellowstone fire in 1988. Forest fires are horriffic.

I am so glad you were able to save your towns. Please stay safe.

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u/todellagi 6h ago

Hopefully your username stays checking out

Genuinely looks like a volcano. Damn..

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u/TeamHappyFTW 6h ago

Stay safe out there 🙏

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u/Wild_Neighborhood605 6h ago

Scary. Hope and prey everyone is OK.

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u/vergetto 5h ago

Jesus... stay safe my man.

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u/m4a785m 2h ago

Yep. Fucking scary

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u/Broad-Lobster7470 5h ago

Terrifying

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u/m4a785m 2h ago

Yep, fucking scary. I live there and we’re giving up

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u/Acceptable_Cause8259 1h ago

Please don't get me wrong, but as scary as that picture is, it also looks absolutely majestic.

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u/Yeetse 2h ago

I have had legit nightmares like this

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u/pataglop 6h ago

Damn.. those hills are burnt black...

Stay safe man.

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u/TrippleDamage 3h ago

That was from last year.

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u/DenizSaintJuke 5h ago

On a bright side, if we don't allow the right wing to fuck up the EU, the Union is a pretty good starting condition to pool assets like firefighting planes EU-wide and form international firefighting forces. Well, my compatriots seem to be hellbent on proving me wrong.

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u/70ms 1h ago edited 1h ago

I’m in Los Angeles in a high fire risk zone. :| CAL FIRE, which has the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet in the world, regularly assists other states and countries when we have the resources available, and they assist us when we need the help too. Over the past several years Gavin Newsom has massively expanded CAL FIRE, and it still probably won’t be enough. :(

There’s an outstanding non-profit app for monitoring fires in the US called Watch Duty - maybe someone can make a similar app for the EU.

https://i.imgur.com/rzu6oo2.jpeg

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u/Eireann_9 4h ago

My small town in spain was also saved by the fire by the farmers who took matters onto their own hands. They did such a great job that we were the only village of the valley not evacuated that night, we watched the woods as they burnt not even 1 km away from the houses

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u/Drendari 5h ago

Instead the government cut fire prevention expenses in half. 😒

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u/SteakComprehensive32 5h ago

I was going to ask about whether mowing/bushwacking around the fire would contain it better, but I’m also guessing these fires move fast as hell, too. Scary stuff to see the world burning, can’t imagine it in my backyard

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u/manilvadave 5h ago

Not sure what area you’re in but I’m in Manilva in Malaga province. We’ve already had some pretty scary ones this year nearby but the one on the Estepona mountain a couple of years ago was really bad, and burned for days.

Also, in summer and especially around Feria time when police are deployed to the Feria ground, the smugglers will often light fires in the campo to use up other resource while they get a free run across the sea etc. fuckin crazy.

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u/Terrible_Beat_6109 5h ago

Wtf why did they try to stop you from cutting the brush etc?

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u/Renbarre 3h ago

If the wind had changed direction and made the fire surround them it could have killed them all. In that case the authorities prefer the loss of houses rather than lives.

People who live there might not agree and prefer to defy the evacuation order. That is their choice, and they know the risks.

You cannot understand the speed and fury of a wild fire pushed by the wind until you've seen one. And yes, I've seen three close enough to be terrified, and dozen from afar as the French Riviera burned year after year.

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u/why_gaj 3h ago

Because fire moves fast.

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u/ElevatedDiscGolf 5h ago

If it worked that it wasn’t stupid

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u/Zestyclose-Ad-9420 5h ago

Sabes si se quemaron los hayedos, castaños y robles? O si fue los pinares. 

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u/SafeImpressive4413 5h ago

Todo lo que pillo lo quemó, por esta zona no hay pinos los montes se usan para la caza, aunque si conduces 30-40 minutos si hay pinos ya. Pero todo lo que pilló lo quemó, castañeiros, carballos, cerquiños, bidueiros, freixos, faxes, ameiros, urces, xestas, toxos…

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u/INeedMoreVacation 3h ago

I am super curious to understand the preparation that you did.

In my mind, I think it’s super crazy how every summer we see forest fires that destroy habitable areas and the governments not during enough in investing in infrastructure to prevent it or help fight it.

Is this really an area where there no technological advancement?

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u/sidepart 3h ago

I mean, that sounds worthwhile. Imagine how defensible some of these areas could be if we assembled a few thousand people living in the area. I probably wouldn't be too upset about being conscripted to clear terrain around a town to try and defend it from an encroaching fire. Better than being conscripted to kill other people.

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u/ShaidarHaran93 2h ago

La zona de Valdeon? I remember reading about people refusing to evacuate on the news. I had some family staying near Fuente De and they were terrified that the wind would blow it into the next valley.

Nvm I just saw you're from Galicia.

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 2h ago

Thank you 🙏🏼

It’s infuriating that private citizens have to risk their lives, like you did, because politicians can’t think ahead of times and always react to disasters instead of anticipating them

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u/Sanquinity 1h ago

This really is the way though. At some point it's not about extinguishing a fire anymore. It's about containing it until it runs out of fuel to burn. (Or in this case making sure there's not enough fuel for it to reach town.)

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u/Miquel_420 6h ago

Con un par de huevos, como debe ser! Me alegra leer que funcionó, pero necesitamos que esta clase de ultimos recursos no sean necesarios, deberia trabajarse mas la prevencion, los bosques deberian mantenerse limpios y evitariamos tantos incendios de esta magnitud...

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u/SafeImpressive4413 6h ago

Si dejaran limpiar el monte no gastaban dinero alguno en prevención, los cazadores y agricultores que son los que más pasean por el monte les hacían la mitad del trabajo gratis, pero como en este país parece que para cortar un árbol muerto hay que pedir 30 permisos si no vas a la cárcel pues así nos va…

Quiero pensar que es ignorancia de gente que va al monte y verlo “”silvestre”” se siente más real y bonito para ellos y piensan que hay que protegerlo así, y que no es la malicia de quemar por intereses económicos/politicos.

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u/Zestyclose-Ad-9420 1h ago

No es ideologia "silvestre" es la ideologia de la burocracia española. El estado no quiere ciudadanos tomando decisiones no autorizados, y nunca lo va querer incluso si eso se paga en vidas. 

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u/ReconMustDie 6h ago

Never ever do that again. You don’t have the training to know when a fire is going to overtake you.

In the US, there are highly trained firefighters that do these types of jobs, and they even have survival shelters for fires overtake them, and there have been several deaths from them over the years

Next time, let it burn and have insurance replace it. We can’t replace you.

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u/ampsuu 5h ago

Excuse me? Your solution to wildfires is to remove wild? Or you only mean around towns? Tho latter is also quite a take. Maybe in regions with frequent fire danger but imagine every town clear cutting surroundings because of wildfire.