It’s hard to describe the feelings that hit you when you see the place where you live and work; the mountains that you know and love on fire.
Panic. Fear. Relief. Anger.
I’ve experienced all these sentiments and many more since a fire destroyed more than 200 hectares of the Sierra de Algairén on the 14th August.
We started harvesting already ripe parcels on the 12th August, earlier than ever before, due to the intense heat. So we were out in the vineyards just after 3pm on the 14th, when we smelled burning and saw a plume of smoke rise on the horizon. It wasn’t until about half an hour later at 3.49pm that the fire was officially declared.
The fire was advancing from Almonacid de la Sierra towards Alpartir and residents were called to evacuate the village. Many people were moved to the sports centre in La Almunia de Doña Godina, but those who were able stayed to help try to contain the flames.
At that moment, no one was thinking about their vineyard, their farm, or what they could lose as an individual. We were only thinking about the mountains and our village. We grabbed hoes, shovels, water, whatever we had, and got to work.
The flames came within just 200 metres of El Jardín de las Iguales. We felt great relief that we managed to save it, but that is not what is truly important. We have lost part of our mountain range. More than 200 hectares of a landscape that is part of us, our history, and the life of this town. That doesn’t come back just because the fire is extinguished.
An entire ecosystem has been changed. Animals are now looking for food wherever they can. They, too, have lost part of their home.
After starting picking on the 12th and having to stop on the 14th due to the fire, we now face the further challenge of having to protect the still-ripening grapes in the higher altitude plots from wild boars, roe deer and other animals.
An additional concern was smoke taint. We took samples of grapes potentially exposed to smoke and sent them to Laboratorios Excell Ibérica, led by Antonio Palacios. Thankfully we received confirmation last week of the results that have ruled out the presence of smoke taint in the tested grapes.
The smoke has cleared and the harvest continues.
But everything has changed. We wake up to see the scorched vegetation every morning. We mourn the loss of our mountain range.
The problem is not just how many firefighting resources we have when a fire breaks out. We have to ask ourselves why our territory is becoming increasingly difficult to defend. Across Spain, agriculture, livestock farming, and villages themselves have been abandoned, and then we are surprised when the forests burn. The fires are a direct result of this abandonment.
Amongst this frustration, I am tremendously proud of my town. When the fire arrived, there was no distinction between landowners, winemakers, farmers or other locals. We were all Alpartir. Everyone worked together without thinking beyond our mountains and our town. That rural pride exists, and it must be defended.
But this capacity to react cannot become the territory’s last line of defence.
We need firefighting equipment, of course, but above all, we need living and working here to make sense again. We need farmers, shepherds and people to take care of the land every single day of the year, not just when it burns.
In a few weeks time, no one will talk about this fire. The least we can do is not forget it.