Last month the local and national news barely talked about anything else. Galicia was on fire, along with neighboring Castilla y León. This summer, the biggest wildfires on record in Galicia engulfed the land. Dozens of forest fires burned rampant, mostly in nearly-vacant southern Ourense. In August alone 270,000 acres burned in Galicia. And these official estimates provided by the Galician government are perhaps exceedingly optimistic, as Coppernicus (the EU's observation of Earth) calculates a number closer to 341,000 acres. That's half the state of Rhode Island! When you put it that way, it doesn't sound very big seeing as Rhode Island is such a tiny state. But imagine all of that ablaze and destroyed for years to come. Alarming!
Uncontrolled wildfires leave a trail of helplessness and destruction. I can only imagine what it's like to see your house threatened by mile-high flames. In addition to helplessness, rage. The wildfires have many causes, the most unthinkable being thoughtless people who intentionally start them themselves, either pyromaniacs or people who think it's easier to burn the brush than clean it up with machinery. Rural abandonment doesn't help, either. With the countryside ¨emptied out¨ in some places, highly flammable brush plus the thousands of Eucalyptus trees planted far and wide to make a buck make the land a matchbox. Call it an indirect result of Galician policy. There are direct political causes, too. As this is a recurring problem in Galicia, there are protocols to prepare for wildfire season. The Galician government (known as the Xunta) dropped the ball on this one. One example: vacant public positions were left unfilled so that in the middle of the chaos caused by the flames, the Xunta desperately sought to hire 300 forest fire fighters. Too little, too late.
Luckily the end of August brought a drop in temperatures and that typical Galician rain. The good news is all of the wildfires have been put out. The bad news is, as they are no longer making headlines, soon they will be forgotten. No changes will be made nor blame accepted until next year's wildfire season. Here's hoping I'm wrong on that.