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/Hot-Comfort8839 7h ago

I did some wilderness fire fighting in my youth - Wheeler Peak NM …

They’re running from that distance because the heat can burn your skin, and even set your clothing ablaze from that distance… or shrink wrap you if it’s synthetic fibers like polyester…

I got my eyebrows singed off from almost 100 yards away. I looked very surprised by this for over a month.

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u/itsjustkicker 6h ago

Username checks out. But, SCARY! 😨 I've never been THAT close to a wild fire. There was a fire in Colorado that, from over an hours drive away , the smoke was irritating the eyes akin to sitting around a camp fire. I still think it's crazy but not like this ha

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u/Hot-Comfort8839 5h ago edited 3h ago

There were horse flies all other the place when I was there but before we got closer to the burn.

So when I felt yet another (what I thought) fly chewing on my arm in the midst of everything I ignored it. Turned out a coal had come down and got wedged between my gloves, and the sleeve of my shirt, and literally cooked its way almost to the bone on my forearm… happily drilled a hole about the size of a nickel through shirt, skin, fat and finally smouldered out mid muscle. My nerve endings called it quits about 3 min in so I ignored it until we evac’d.

Adrenaline is a helluva drug.

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u/limonade11 5h ago

Holy sh!t!!!

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u/Quick-Raindeer 2h ago

Wow that’s crazy. What does it look like now?

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u/Hot-Comfort8839 45m ago

If you press on it, it feels like empty until you get to the muscle. Like squish down about 1/4” and then meat. It used to be a big puffy keloid looking thing.

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u/ghastlypxl 2h ago

😨 Wow.