Igor Sierra: "I read EL PAÍS since I was six years old"

Igor Sierra Tascón (Barakaldo, 48 years old) says he started reading EL PAÍS at the age of six when he lived with his parents and brother in Bezana (Cantabria). "On weekends, we beat each other for him," he says. From there the Picos de Europa can be seen on clear days and there he has ended up working, by the skirt that overlooks the provinces of Palencia and León. In an office of 2,600 hectares without walls, the pine forest of Riocamba, which must protect all year round as an operator and forest firefighter. Today he lives in León, where we meet to tell us about his life and his work as guardian of the forests.

Question. Why have you subscribed to EL PAÍS?

Answer. I've been reading it since I was six years old.

Q. It creates addiction, but it will also have taken some displeasure ...

A. I do, I believe it and I was disgusted when the editorial line changed in its day towards positions closer to the right. Although, you think, maybe it's okay to disagree all the time with what you want to read.

Q. What do you do?

A. I am an operator and forest firefighter. I studied some geology, I have always liked rocks, realizing that we usually consider things 80 years ahead, what we live and that a rock can take there 3,000 and that when we die it will continue in the same place. It serves a lot for when you are not there.

Q. Awareness that you may not be at any time is given by your work, is your life at stake?

A. I play it.

Q. What does your job involve?

A. Take care of what I call my office: the pine forest of Riocamba, north of León and Palencia. It is surrounded by pine trees, tracks, wild boars, roe deer, foxes, the occasional bear footprint. It measures 2,600 hectares and I am delighted because it has no walls.

Q. What is winter like?

A. Hard, snow, water, air... It strengthens your body and head and connects you with something that we may have lost many years ago, with nature. Something purer than asphalt.

Q. Are there spring and autumn?

A. Not here. Perhaps we have three seasons: winter, summer, and then the train or bus season.

Igor Sierra is a forest firefighter in Castilla y León. Emilio Fraile

Q. With climate change, are you more afraid of summer?

A. Much more! To anyone who works in this and walks below the Iberian system, I would like to be in your skin from April onwards.

Q. You worked on the fire in the Sierra de la Culebra, in Zamora, what happened?

A. Fires today generate microclimates that we cannot control. You play it with the irradiation of fire itself. Climate change exists. Anyone who lives in León knows that it is not normal to walk more than a month above 29 degrees.

Q. In case some politicians haven't heard...

A. The vast majority of them, regardless of color, are out of reality. And more so of the primary sector, which has almost completely disappeared since we joined the European Union.

Q. Apart from the Culebra, last summer he was about to be trapped in another fire. Which one?

A. In the regional park of Picos de Europa, the garden of León. There are fires that seem less dangerous and are not treated in the media, but they are just as dangerous as others. We went to defend a concrete hill, the fire surrounded us and I called my wife to say goodbye. I told him what was there and...

Q. And...?

A. I managed to get out. We saved a lot. When we take stock of these things, perhaps we should think, rather than what is lost, what is saved, which can be a lot. Sometimes you have to make a counterfire so that 2,000 burn instead of 30,000 hectares. I don't like to see a tree burn, but...

Q. How long does one stay in a fire?

A. Until they order him to go. In theory 12 hours, but they can be converted into 19.

Q. How do you get home afterwards?

A. Many days you don't know... Black, smelling of bonfire, smoke, with a stained nose, full of ash, wanting to hug whoever awaits you and sleep. Although the adrenaline, sometimes, makes you feel like a hero without a cape, for the fact of having saved what you had to save and stay alive.

Q. With anger?

A. Sometimes, yes, with a lot of anger, a lot. The forest firefighter when he really works is in winter to avoid that in summer what sometimes happens does not happen. That is why, when it occurs, it gives anger. That's why you cry. Because of the frustration of not being aware of what we have, a country with this forest mass. Incredible. If we managed the forest well here, I would laugh at the Scandinavian countries.

Q. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A. Pinchadiscos, I started in Cairo, a room in Santander. And that fed me a long time, but what I have and am now I don't change for anything.

Q. Even if I pay for it at the stress level?

A. Some studies say that for this job, in the most adverse circumstances, we reach the wear and tear of a professional cyclist.

Q. How do you prepare for this?

A. In my case, I haven't set foot in a gym in my life. But there, in the office, what we have is a paid gym.

Q. It will be prepared in another way...

A. Good nutrition, I drink a lot of water and I try to get sleep, even if in that, I fail.

Q. It will not be because we take them away when you read EL PAÍS...

A. No, although my first connection in the morning, with a coffee, is EL PAÍS, before on paper, although I changed it, precisely, for the environmental issue.