In a reckless and daring act, a group of 12 neighbors decided not to leave Berrocal during the severe fire that last week ravaged its forests, despite the evacuation ordered by the authorities. Almost all mature neighbors who refused to leave their homes and had already seen their town burn many times before: in 1975, 1992, 1995, and 2004.
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“We felt the danger and were terrified because we were completely surrounded, but we collaborated with the UME to extinguish the fires around the town with water backpacks and tools. The fire stayed only 50 meters to the south and east, and 100 meters to the west and north,” details Juan José Bermejo, mayor in 2004, when the huge Riotinto fire also surrounded the town. The former mayor stayed hidden at home and gradually went out to the streets, like the rest, all organized through messaging groups, although none have been fined for disobeying the mass evacuation of their 300 neighbors.
The fire was stabilized yesterday after 10 days of hell and has burned 33,000 hectares, almost all in Huelva and a corner in Seville, according to the latest satellite calculation. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest fire in recent decades in Andalusia, surpassing the 29,867 hectares burned in Riotinto. The blow to the Huelva territory, of one million hectares, has been tremendous.
Regarding the spontaneous local support to the forest firefighters, former councilor Eduardo de los Reyes clarifies: “I tried to stay, but they caught me. We just wanted to save the town. This is the mountains, and with the terrain, the embers trap you. The crews didn’t know where the water points were, nor did they know the geography or the trails in the area. And even so, there were crews that disobeyed orders to withdraw to save the town,” explains De los Reyes. Finally, the UME and Infoca firefighting services achieved their goal, and the flames did not enter the town, despite their aggressiveness and constant wind changes.
Now the spirits of the Berrocal neighbors are at an all-time low after 90% of their 12,500 hectares burned, according to City Hall estimates. Everything in the forest is ash, charred trunks, and a gray landscape with black and orange patches. There is hardly any trace of the usual deer and genets, some of which were saved in the vegetation islands spared by the fire. This Monday morning, a team of volunteers from animal rights groups from other towns left wheat, oats, and straw bales on certain paths to feed them during these grim days.
“We are so devastated that we could put a black box in the Town Hall for neighbors to leave their keys, deeds, and we all leave. But we are strong and resilient. Now the social flames are dying down because people are very burned out. As my neighbor Miguel says, there’s not even enough left for a cork stopper [the cork industry had until now a significant weight in the local economy]. This could be the final blow, but we will look for a future. Right now we are a blank notebook; the administrations need to get their act together to help us,” reflects the mayor of Berrocal, Ángel Luis Romero (independent), with a hoarse voice from the tragedy experienced. More than half of the 283 neighbors are over 65 years old, while the town’s school holds on with nine students.
This Monday, about ten young volunteers from the neighboring town El Madroño came to sweep the ash from the streets, which were filled with downcast neighbors and journalists doing live reports for the news. “It’s our first day of vacation, we came without thinking. In 2004 I was two years old, but just from what the elders tell you, it chills you,” recounts Carlos Martín. The British Celia Carlsen, a resident of Berrocal for 10 years fleeing the overcrowding of the Costa del Sol, points out: “These have been very difficult days, but also an incredible experience because of the support the Red Cross gave us in Zalamea, where they took us in. We have no plan B, this is our home.”
The mayor reflects on the origin of the fire: “We were waiting to burn any summer because it was a powder keg.” He refers to the huge eucalyptus plantations surrounding Berrocal and that Huelva had, up to 240,000 hectares, a quarter of the province’s total area. Now the eucalyptus stands have been reduced to 140,000, according to calculations by the University of Huelva, but Infoca experts have pointed out their decisive role in the fire spreading like wildfire and have defined eucalyptus as “gasoline tree” or “fuel tree.”
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The Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno (PP), has pointed to this species imported for timber use: “Here we have to reduce the level of eucalyptus, especially in forest mass. There are areas that have been abandoned and were made for the paper industry, and when that industry practically left that activity, many of them were left abandoned and unproductive, and I think that has to be eradicated,” he said in a video on his social networks. Regarding this, Mayor Romero comments on the main pulp company, Ence, with 6,290 hectares burned in this fire: “Ence knows what it’s facing, I don’t know if it expected Moreno to point a finger at it. It will be a long process, but it’s already a big step.”
The company rejects the accusations from the firefighting services: “The burned areas had received maintenance and prevention measures last spring as contemplated by Ence’s exhaustive forest management protocols, which helped slow the fire when it reached these stands (…) Eucalyptus is not a more flammable species than others. Also, a productive eucalyptus stand, like any managed forest, is not more prone to burning than other types of forests,” the company states in a written response.
Juan Romero, spokesperson for Ecologists in Action and resident of Berrocal, throws down a challenge to the Andalusian president: “Moreno says it’s a gasoline tree, and I tell him to get to work, starting with the public forests of the Junta, which have many eucalyptus stands. When the 2004 fire happened, [Manuel] Chaves said Huelva needed to be relieved of eucalyptus, and in 2011 Ence started planting more eucalyptus. Now I ask Moreno to have his technicians study how not to leave the soil eroded and to avoid the mistakes of 2004, when the Junta invested 76 million to restore, but 80% of the species they planted were lost. Umbrella species are needed to be able to get them through,” he encourages.
“After the Doñana fire, a scientific commission was created to recover the estates, and we want the same,” he adds. But besides flora, there is fauna, and Ecologists in Action asks the Ministry for Ecological Transition to protect the animals that escaped the fire. Asked about the fire, Sara Aagesen’s Department has refused to respond to this newspaper. For now, hunters from Valverde del Camino and Niebla have decided not to hunt for the next three years so that species can recover.
Rubén Fernández, forest engineer PhD from the University of Huelva, recalls: “In Huelva, for years, the soil was bare, and after the Civil War, wood was needed, and eucalyptus was introduced. But it should not be demonized; all trees help mitigate climate change, capture CO2 , and prevent soil erosion. The regeneration task will take decades and is very extensive; pioneer species and light trees will have to be introduced because we are interested in preserving the soil.”
In any case, eucalyptus stands are in decline in Andalusia, and if at the end of the 1980s they covered 267,269 hectares, today there are about 150,000 hectares left, according to data from the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment. In Huelva, the net decrease of eucalyptus covers 63,700 hectares. “The priority is the recovery of the native Mediterranean forest and the transformation of those eucalyptus stands that show little ecological suitability, promoting their systematic replacement by native forest species that offer a better response against soil erosion and water scarcity. This favors the creation of mosaic landscapes that reduce the continuity of forest fuel,” a spokesperson for the Andalusian Government states in writing.
With or without eucalyptus stands, the neighbors of Berrocal repeat that they will try to rise again from the disaster, although they will need great doses of patience until the green grows back in their burned forests.
