The Asturians Ramiro Martínez and Saúl Ordiales, members of the Tineo Brif, arrived home this Friday after a “intense and satisfying” experience in the immense fires from Quebec, in Canada, in which they had to be evacuated when they were surrounded by fire, which had cut off the only exit road.
Ramiro Martínez, 34 years old, eight of them in the Brif -although he was also a technician with Bomberos Asturias-, assures that “Must be seen to be believedthe immensity of territory, full of lakes, rivers, wild fauna, all green, and the magnitude of the fires is unimaginablewith very thick, giant columns of smoke”. In addition, the way of working is very different. “They work with water, with lines of hoses, which they recharge in lakes and rivers, while we make direct attacks on the flames with fire bats or water in very specific points, and with firebreaks anchored in safe areas, such as crags”, he indicates. defend populations and infrastructures“. The fire brifs displaced to Canada, specifically to the Quebecois town of Mistissini, were in charge of preparing an improvised heliport in the middle of the forest, a “station park” through which reinforcements arrived and which allowed “quick evacuation in case of high risk, due to a change in the wind or an excessive intensity of the fire”.
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“These are huge fires, covering 50,000 hectares, another world compared to what we can see in Asturias. In addition, they are not provoked, but rather caused by dry storms,” says Saúl Ordiales. “they had to evacuate us from Mistissini because the fire cut a road that was the only escape route”, says this forest firefighter from Sierense.
The experience, adds Ordiales, “has been unique and brutal, incredible, due to the magnitude of the fires, the logistics involved in this operation and the landscape.” Ramiro Martínez stresses that, through this mission under the umbrella of the Civil Protection mechanism of the European Union, he has been able to meet other forest firefighters, other work methods, and also grow professionally and personally. “It has been a powerful experience. It is my first mission abroad. Previously I was in the great fire in Ávila, in La Cabrera, in Galicia, in Cantabria and I had to clear the snow on the occasion of ‘Filomena’, but it has nothing to do with those we have experienced in Canada, due to the greater intensity of fires, which affect large areas of conifers, which burn much better,” he said.