Fire!!!

Fire - something that plagues all of us in these hot conditions at this time of year.  You only have to hear a distant helicopter and we are sniffing the air and checking the horizon for signs of fire.  Its actually quite a scary thing and something the Spanish dont seem to get too hot under the collar about.

Usually there is a ban on lighting a fire between May and October - although strong rumour has it that it is in fact illegal to light any kind of fire (apart from in the house in a fire place) at any time of year unless you have a "fire" licence.  That seems like a good idea to me but there again, like so many of the laws here, its only the foreigners that adhere to the laws.  The Spanish just light their fires at night - and keep them smoky rather than firey!!

It just occurred to me the other day when I smelt a faint whiff of smoke, that we had not seen any fires around our way all year.  I have hardly heard the helicopters going over either which is good.  I wonder if the extremely wet (and rather elongated) winter that we had has made fire less of a problem!  It doesnt seem likely though does it?  After all its tinder box dry here now - very little green apart from the citrus trees and I am sure that it would only take one cigarette butt carelessly thrown to start everything off.

Last year we had several fires quite close and one very, very close but the bomberos (fire fighters) were with us very quickly.  I actually spoke to the operator in English because its not something you want to get wrong when giving directions!!! She asked me how close the closest house was to the fire - obviously to ascertain if a helicopter was viable.  The house (not ours I hasten to add) was very close indeed so they only sent road vehicles and no air support.

Where we used to live - near Maqueda (closer to Malaga city) we had a fire just down the track from us that lasted all afternoon and night.  The bomberos left at about 9am and were back before lunch because it re-ignited.  It was disgusting because it was paints and paint related chemicals.  It came very close to our house in that instance.  But again the whole thing was dealt with very efficiently.

I think if you live in a country that is plagued by bush/forest fires - they do develop a very clear method of dealing with it.  As I say - this year has been great and I personally have only seen the helicopter once the whole summer!  Amazing.