The fire sweeping through Madrid at full speed seems to have a mind of its own. A few hours ago, it was divided into three fronts which now, after being drawn together and merging into a whole by the dynamics of air currents, form a single tongue of fire that devastates everything in its path. And, as if it knew exactly where to aim, it approached with ill intent the base of its main enemy: the Advanced Command Post (PAM) from where authorities design the strategy to combat it.
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The PAM was installed until this Saturday on the outskirts of Cenicientos, next to the cemetery and the municipal funeral home. From that hill where the ancestors of the residents of this Madrid mountain town are buried, the flames devouring the mountain were clearly visible. It was the perfect place to direct the deployment of thousands of personnel on the ground. However, the fire got too close, making it dangerous to remain there. At that moment, the sky had turned orange and a thick fog enveloped everything.
The dismantling of the PAM has been interpreted as what it is: a reflection that the situation is very serious. The news caught everyone by surprise. President Isabel Díaz Ayuso was speaking with the press when the Government delegate, Francisco Martín, interrupted her and took the microphone. “We are going to proceed with the evacuation of the municipality of Cenicientos, so we are going to dismantle this PMA. We ask you to leave here in an orderly and calm manner,” he said. Within an hour, everything was packed up.
In Cenicientos and the surrounding areas, they suspected that the same thing would happen to them as to the other 12 municipalities in Madrid that have been evacuated. They are now part of the 29,488 people displaced by a fire that has already burned 24,000 hectares in Madrid alone (45,000 if Ávila is included), an immense amount in an area as populated as this. Aroa Boto, 37, had been thinking for days that this moment would come, but that doesn’t make it any easier to leave your home behind, to fate.
This swimming instructor, who has moved back in with her parents after ending a relationship, saw a lot of smoke from her window this morning. Embers flew freely through Entrepinos, her urbanization. A message arrived on her phone: “Evacuation ordered.” She was still packing her things when the Civil Guard, in the street, rushed them through a megaphone: they had to leave as soon as possible. Aroa put her things in the car, but that wasn’t all. She had something else: three dogs, a fourth from a friend, and that friend’s young daughter, who was left in her care because her mother works in Civil Protection and her father is a forest firefighter.
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Just as she was about to start a car that looked like the Marx Brothers’ cabin, the concierge told her that she had to help two neighbors: “One is blind and the other has no legs. Oh, and another elderly neighbor who could really use a hand.” In 10 or 12 minutes, at most, everything was resolved. She is going to stay at another friend’s house in Escalona del Alberche, a nearby town crowned by a medieval castle. One of her dogs is so big that her father had to take it with him to a farm. At some point, she will have to return the girl to her parents. That hasn’t stopped her from calling a councilor in Villa del Prado in case they need help there. “Well, here we help each other a lot. We are very supportive,” she says proudly.
The Sierra Oeste of Madrid has been in a very critical situation since Wednesday, when fires began to spread in the triangle where the provinces of Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo meet. High temperatures and strong gusts of wind have made them uncontrollable despite the efforts of the authorities, who even have international help. That effort was directed from a command post that also had to move due to flames that do not understand hierarchies.
The express evacuation of that area caused traffic jams on the roads, although at no time was there chaos or disorganization. If there’s one thing the fire hasn’t managed to create, it’s panic. Until a while before the evacuation, in Cenicientos and Cadalso de los Vidrios, to give two examples, the bars were open and people were walking in the street. From Casa Mila, a roadside restaurant in Escalona, customers were eating paella with rabbit while residents of nearby towns fled with their cars packed. It’s not that they didn’t care, it’s that they don’t want to lose their calm until it’s their turn to head down the same path.
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