Claudio Andrade
03/12/2021 12:28 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/12/2021 1:44 PM
The brigade members who walk through the fields of the Andean Region, covered with ashes and blackened trees, came across the image of the tragedy already produced by the forest fires in southern Argentina: the body of the first victim,
a country man, burned , along with the remains of his horse and dog
.
He is a baqueano from the El Maitén area, in Chubut, known to rural residents as the "gaucho" Sixto Garcés (50).
The man's remains were discovered in the
Cañadón de los Ensueños area,
near the Buenos Aires Chico School Village, among the debris left by the fire, along with those of his two animals.
All completely charred.
The hypothesis of the tragedy analyzed by the brigadistas is that the laborer was trapped two or three days ago between
huge columns of fire
that prevented him from moving towards safe territory, local sources told Clarín.
The heat and flames finally overcame his experience on the mountain and his physical strength.
Surrounded by fire, he ended up being consumed at a brutal temperature.
His dog did not abandon him at any time and
stayed with him
facing an atrocious death, say those who were in the place and saw the painful panorama of the find.
The baqueano, his horse and the dog remained on the ground, covered by a gray and black cape,
as if petrified
in a scene that shocked the hardened brigadistas who arrived in the sector.
Garcés was a well-known rural worker who has a family in El Maitén.
It is estimated that the fire struck him down between Monday and Tuesday when he was taking animals
to summer pastures
.
The fire caught it in the surroundings of Cañadón de los Ensueños, which is reached by leaving the Buenos Aires Chico area, about 70 kilometers from El Bolsón.
Patagonian gauchos tend to walk long distances on their horse, generally in the company of one or two faithful dogs that do not abandon their master in the sun or in the shade.
The geography that surrounds El Maitén is
as rich as it is complex
.
The Cañadón de los Ensueños lives up to its tourist name.
The area is characterized by being populated by cypresses, lengas, coihues and ñires,
a beautiful green universe that was destroyed by fire
.
At this point there are also streams and waterfalls forming a natural paradise.
Garcés was
one of the 15 missing residents
left by the fire.
The fires have already affected 30 injured, two of them seriously.
The outbreaks
that developed in recent days were divided into a larger fire in the El Maitén area, which presumably started last weekend, and a series of hot spots in
El Hoyo, Cholila, Lago Puelo and Las Golondrinas
, which erupted Tuesday afternoon.
There are versions that locate members of radicalized Mapuche groups in the area of the outbreaks that surrounded the towns of the Andean Region in the last 48 hours.
The fire in the El Maitén area, which started days before, has already affected some
two thousand hectares
, but in areas that are rather remote from the rural area of the Andean communities.
The fires in the Andean Region
consumed around 200 houses
, leaving about a
thousand rural residents
who totally or partially lost their homes.
The rains on Wednesday
extinguished the vast majority of the lights
, but the destruction that the fire left in its wake will take years to be overcome, experts said.
* Correspondent in Río Negro.
DS
Look also
They identified three suspects of causing the fires in Patagonia
Fires in the South: 250 houses damaged and a prosecutor who lowers the tone of the possible “intentionality” of the fire