A failed rescue and a refuge under the rocks: the two deceased in the Ponent fire were farmers

Cabanabona / BarcelonaTwo men died Tuesday trying to escape the flames in Coscó, in the Noguera region. According to sources consulted by ARA, they are two farmers from a nearby farm, the owner and a worker, who They tried to avoid the fire that was burning out of control in Segarra at that time.The worker allegedly called the owner to rescue him, as he was feeling ill at the time due to the smoke from the fire in a field. The owner left in a car, and the worker managed to get in, according to initial speculation.

However, while driving along a forest road, they found themselves trapped. Everything indicates that they tried to flee on foot and, finally, decided to hide under some rocks.

The Mossos d'Esquadra have opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the deaths. residents of Agramunt. The town has decreed two days of official mourning and remembered the two victims with a minute of silence.

victims. "In the end, it's a town and we all know each other. We didn't expect this misfortune; it could have happened to any of us," reflects Josep López. Evenilda Saiz explains that what happened is very painful for her, since one of the victims was a distant relative and that's all anyone talks about on the street.

The municipalities of Segarra and Noguera, which saw the violent fire spread in a short time, from Cabanabona to Guissona, passing through Vilanova de l'Aguda, Torrefeta and Florejacs, Sanaüja and Guissona, explained this Wednesday the angoixa. They drag it, and some of them admit that they risked their lives to save their property or livestock. "I was miraculously saved," they explain, "I shouldn't have done what I did," they admit. They now live in Guissona, but come back regularly. "I had my whole childhood here," they confess.

Rossend Pons is a livestock farmer in Vilamajor (Cabanabona) and saw the fire approaching his pig farm at the most fateful moment. Using a tractor and a tanker, he watered the perimeter of his farm with livestock slurry, an unprecedented decision that saved almost all the animals. His wife, Neus Mangues, was stranded while accompanying her daughters to a swimming lesson in Guissona. The helplessness she felt at not being able to return home drove her to despair: "If the government doesn't take better care of those of us who care for this territory, the rural world will end up disappearing in our country," he adds.

In Vilamajor, another farmer, Jaume Vilalta, was unable to save some of his pigs, who died of suffocation from the thick smoke of the fire. However, he maintains that the casualties were not excessive thanks to the extremely rapid spread of the fire. "If you think about it, the fact that we're still alive is a miracle in a major catastrophe," says Vilalta, who traveled from Barcelona last night to assist with the rescue efforts.

Fear and anxiety

The fire reached the foot of the houses in some of the smaller communities, such as Coscó, Renant, and Vilamajor, and in many cases was extinguished by firefighters or residents themselves. One area where emergency services failed to respond was Rovira, a huge six-generation farmhouse on the outskirts of Cabanabona where two families live. The fire surrounded the building, and they claim they received no assistance. "I admit we weren't afraid because we were protected by the stone house, but I regret that they had abandoned us," says Joan Marquilles. "Not even the emergency vehicles stopped to ask if we were okay," he says. They lived through it with anxiety. The residents of Rovira are still vividly reminded of the fire they also suffered in July 2009, an episode very similar to the current one. "History has repeated itself," concludes Marquilles.

Most of the farmhouses and small towns in the area have also suffered power and fiber optic service outages. Technicians from various electricity and water supply companies are inspecting the facilities today for repairs.

Many farmers, members of the various ADF (Forest Defense Associations), have been working through the night and throughout this morning, plowing the perimeter of the devastated area to prevent the fire from reigniting and affecting new areas. "They recommended we stay home, but we all wanted to save what we could," some say. "Yesterday afternoon I helped put out the first outbreak in Ribelles, but the second one in Torrefeta and Florejacs was already impossible to stop," explains Ramon Gatnau, a farmer from Vilanova de la Aguda.

He and many of his ADF colleagues, who did everything possible to save farmhouses, cutlery, and machinery, were unable to prevent their barley fields, yet to be harvested, from being burned to the ground. "Now we'll see how the insurance companies handle it," comments another farmer from Cabanabona.

Larysa arrived in Agramunt as a refugee from the war in Ukraine and describes the fire as "the apocalypse": "There was smoke everywhere and you couldn't go outside. The lockdown notification came to us when we were already at home with the windows closed, but luckily everything happened very quickly here." She speaks quite good Catalan and says she feels terrible that this happened in a town where she is "grateful" for the welcome they have given her.