“There are no more trees. There are only burnt sticks left. The houses are black and everything is destroyed: there is nothing left,” explains Núria Ferrer with goosebumps after returning to her home in the River Park urbanization, in El Pont de Vilomara (Bages). It is one of the urbanizations most affected by the fire that has been burning since Sunday, and the hundred residents who live in the area do not know when they will be able to return home. Those who have done so have only been able to collect what is essential. Many neighbors, completely devastated, wonder where they are going to live. Those affected have booed the mayor and those responsible for the Interior for not having cleaned the wooded area despite their demands.
Núria speaks trembling and with a small voice. She has just returned from what used to be her house. “You are left with a feeling of rage, of helplessness… It’s just that there’s nothing left,” she continues. “There are only about 15 that are intact. The rest is a ruin,” she says. She is one of the few neighbors who has been able to go up to the house. Those who needed to take medical supplies, such as oxygen cylinders or medication, or who wanted to rescue their animals and feed them, since they had to lock them up at home, have done so. And they are accompanied by Agents Rurals troops, who are looking for evidence of the causes of the fire and calculating the material damage.
charred memories
“What hurts me the most are the memories that have stayed there and I won’t get them back,” says a devastated Roberto García. This widower, father of an 11-year-old girl, knows that his house is in ruins. “I’ve already been told that there is no roof… that it’s all ashes,” he explains. He has spent the night in the municipal pavilion. “I just have nowhere to go,” he says. His house, like most of the ‘River’, has a plot of land with a garden of about 100 square meters, although most of the houses barely have a plant of 80 square meters. Garcia was still paying the mortgage. “I take it as best I can, but the girl has everything there: the books, the homework, the computer…”, he continues. Resigned, he looks ahead. “We have come out of worse,” he replies hopefully. Six years ago, the death of his wife from cancer already made him reel. “I thought I wouldn’t have to put up with another stick,” he blurts out, crestfallen.
His neighbors try to cheer him up. Asunción Blanco, ‘Conchita’, holds the dog in front of the municipal sports center. “I am calm because I was able to save the dogs… But my son’s photos and clothes are still there,” she says with red eyes, to the point of tears. “He died when he was 14 years old, but I had all his things stored there,” she continues. She saw how the flames approached her house on Sunday. “I was hanging out the clothes and I started calling my husband to come over. She was so nervous that my glasses broke… It was like being in hell,” she continues. Finally, she knows that his house is still standing. “The garden and the pool are burned, but at least the house is fine,” she continues. She lives for rent.
Psychological Support
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David cannot articulate a word. His lips tremble and he only prays for his cat. “At the moment there is a lot of anger, but anxiety pictures will begin to appear as soon as they go home and see the situation,” says Carme Espelt, a psychologist from Cardona transferred to El Pont de Vilomara to care for those affected. The anger that the psychologist has seen is capital. The neighbors have booed the mayor, Enric Campàs. “They don’t know how to tell us which houses are burned. And it’s been a long time since we warned, they don’t clean the forest: that was a powder keg,” criticizes Gerard Candel, one of the affected neighbors who has had to leave his house. He got up 30 minutes into the match. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Outside the sports center several children play while they wait for their parents. “And your house has burned down?” asks Elisa, 5 years old, to the other children who play on the ground. “Yesterday I was really scared, today I slept at my aunt’s house,” says the girl. Xenia, another friend, emphasizes a fact. “Yesterday was my birthday, I did 9 years.” No one remembers the celebration anymore. It had to be discontinued. The baby and her parents had to flee with what they were wearing. She doesn’t know when she will come home. But she will never forget this date, her ninth anniversary.