Fernando Aguero
09/24/2020 - 18:54
Clarín.com
Society
The smile of the woman serving the cooked mate can be seen behind the flower-patterned chinstrap.
The fire trucks and fire engines do not stop coming and going to the operations center that was built in San Antonio de Arredondo to load supplies and continue fighting the fire that began on Monday in a southern neighborhood of Villa Carlos Paz and carries
four days of unbridled advance
.
At the meeting point, on Route 14, firefighters with red eyes and sooty bodies arrive exhausted to look for a piece of bread, a cup of coffee or cooked mate or the daily ration of food.
They have been four days with few hours of sleep, charged with adrenaline and tension.
With his hands bandaged, Federico Achaval (29) is one of the firefighters who suffered injuries facing the flames this Monday.
He could have stayed at home
but wanted to be close to his colleagues and help with something.
A firefighting crew on Route 14, a supply point.
Photo Government of Córdoba
"The fire was coming directly to an area with houses and we went inside. I didn't realize the temperature until I was there and I burned my hands with the radiation from the place," he said.
He said he felt the heat in his hands but kept going.
"I had first and second degree burns.
What hurts me the most is not being able to do anything now. These are very hard days for me because I cannot help my colleagues."
Federico Achaval had first and second degree burns on his hands.
The beggining
It all started on Monday on a hill in the mountain range that surrounds Carlos Paz, on the Sol y Río neighborhood.
The "smoke" could be seen from the center of the city and nothing foreshadowed the complications it would bring later.
The weather conditions, the north wind of more than 30 kilometers per hour, and the extensive drought,
did the rest.
The flames quickly spread to the neighboring town of San Antonio de Arredondo.
They put homes and lives at risk.
Thousands of hectares of native forest were turned into ashes.
The routes operate as "firebreaks" but the flames are still intense in the Córdoba mountains.
Photo: The Voice
This Thursday, the focus continued its advance through the same mountain range towards San Clemente,
a paradise for life in the countryside
nestled at the foot of the Altas Cumbres and the Quebrada del Condorito National Park.
In another area of the Punilla Valley, a fire of a monstrous magnitude was heading yesterday to the Pampa de Oláen after causing considerable ecological damage since its beginning this Tuesday in Cuchi Corral (La Cumbre),
the mecca of paragliders.
Official estimates speak of 16,000 hectares destroyed since Monday.
Neighbors and the solidarity chain
On Wednesday afternoon, the city of Carlos Paz appeared to be under a dome filled with smoke and ash from one of the
most terrible
fires
in
the last 10 years.
The fear of contagion of coronavirus was put aside and hundreds of neighbors arrived with cans of water, food, fruits to leave them as a donation for the firefighters after four days of intense work.
In many cases, they also
lost their effort in hand-to-hand combat against fire.
A helicopter transports a load of water to spill on one of the fronts of fire.
Photo Télam
"We decided to hire a freight to bring water and donations for the boys who are working," said a woman as she got out of a rented truck to get to one of the outbreaks located in the Las Rosas neighborhood, in the south of the city.
With spontaneous leaders who gave orders to arrange things and provide help, the neighbors collaborated with what was within their power so that the fire did not reach the populated area.
The noise of the passage of the hydrant planes was heard all afternoon between the operations of loading water in Lake San Roque and
unloading in the burning mountains.
"I have to defend my house"
Esteban Ávila opens the gate and gets back into the Icho Cruz Fire Department,
a four-by-four truck
equipped to take action in places where fire
trucks
do not reach.
Esteban is a firefighter but he is also the son of Omar Ávila, the owner of this field in the Las Jarillas area, who is dedicated to raising animals.
"I am proud of my son, who found this beautiful vocation to serve," says the man who has just arrived from the mountain where he chopped branches to make it more difficult for the flames to pass.
The spotlight is seen in the distance, behind a row of tall eucalyptus trees, and the Avila do not seem to be afraid.
"Today I have to defend my house, but for more than 7 years I have been working to serve the rest," Esteban points out.
Esteban Ávila prepares to return to the flames, after searching for supplies.
A few meters from that familiar scene, Diego Sánchez, the chief in charge of this endowment, looks towards the column of smoke that can be seen about three kilometers from the farm.
Diego is a graphic designer and firefighter by vocation.
In the last four days, he only returned to his home in Icho Cruz for a few hours to sleep in a bed.
"I couldn't stay long, anxiety led me back to the operations center to find out where we had to go," he says.
And he adds: "What we do is a passion that is contagious, inherited and it is very common for there to be families with several firefighters."
Environmental emergency
In August about 40 thousand hectares were burned in Córdoba only in mountain areas.
A forest fire that started in the north of the province crossed departments and reached Capilla del Monte, burning at least 20 houses.
That prompted Governor Juan Schiaretti to declare an environmental emergency at the end of the month.
This Thursday morning, Lieutenant Governor Manuel Calvo visited the operations center in San Antonio and greeted the firefighters thanking them for their effort.
Calvo told Clarín that the actions of the firefighters and the pilots of the hydrant planes are heroic.
"There are more than 400 volunteer firefighters per shift who are working with the necessary equipment in conjunction with 10 hydrant planes and two helicopters," he said.
In the afternoon, the Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, Juan Cabandié, was at the site.
In the fires of the last week, it is estimated that Córdoba lost some 22 thousand hectares of native forest.
Adding the previous ones of this year and those that occurred in areas of the flat region, no less than 70 thousand hectares would add to the terrible statistics.
It is the worst year since the fateful 2013, when 152,000 hectares were burned.
Villa Carlos Paz. Special for Clarín
GS