"Five firefighters slept on the floor of the dining room of the house in case the fire reignited"

La Pobla de ClaramuntCora Farré was calmly sitting on the sofa at her home, in the Les Garrigues urbanization of Pobla de Claramunt, when her parents entered shouting that they had to leave, that their house was burning. The following 24 hours have been a constant fight against the flames in ground zero of the Anoia fire, which has burned almost 500 hectares and is now stabilized. "We were all crying, you don't know what to grab, what you leave behind forever," she recalls of the first moments. She explains that her father and brother were cutting down the trees closest to the house to prevent the fire from reaching it and losing everything while they waited for the Generalitat Firefighters, who worked all night to minimize the fire's impact on the houses. "Five firefighters slept on the living room floor of the house in case it flared up again," she explains.

Fortunately, they have a trial track at their home that served as a firebreak – to be able to ride their motorcycle, they kept the undergrowth clear – but she says that the fire did burn down the houses of other neighbors in the urbanization. Throughout Tuesday, they continued to douse the area with buckets of water to prevent the fire from reigniting, and despite their efforts, the firefighters still do not consider it controlled. The body's Collapsed Structures Group is assessing the houses affected by the fire in the urbanization. On Tuesday night, the residents were able to return home, although there are six buildings with varying degrees of damage.

Further down, in the center of Pobla de Claramunt, the situation during the first hours of the fire was also one of panic. The first thing Jordi Còdol did upon seeing the flames close to his home was to send his son Marià, 14 years old, to his grandparents, away from the danger zone. He says that all the forest they have above their house has burned, where he spent one of the worst nights of his life confined. "The wind was going back and forth, it was a powder keg. We all felt fear, and now we continue to be restless," he admits. Hours later, the town woke up to smoke in the streets and a strong smell of burning.

"It's a life lost"

The neighbors who could not leave the town spent the whole night locked up at home while the emergency services worked. All the witnesses the ARA has spoken to assure that they felt safe, despite seeing the fire so close, due to the presence of firefighters and police in the streets. They do regret, however, the losses they have suffered, such as Jordi Carceller, who had some olive trees that he says he considers lost. Ángeles says she has lived in the town for 18 years and had never experienced a situation like this, which she believes was due to a lack of prevention. "It is not well maintained, it is all very dry and full of vegetation," she laments.

Other people who have also suffered the harsh consequences of this fire are the owners of the warehouses in the industrial estates near the fire. In fact, some have directly seen their businesses devastated by the fire. "It's a lost life," lament the owners of Macotoya mattress factory, a "lifelong" company that had been installed in the industrial estate for twenty years. They explain that they have lost everything. One kilometer from the burnt-out warehouse, firefighters continue to spray the still-smoking land with seaplanes. In total, eight industrial warehouses have been affected: two with total impact, three with partial impact, and three with minor impact, two of these due to smoke

Dani, Sandra and Cristina are employees of Screen Protectors, a company right next to the mattress factory which, on the other hand, has been saved from the fire. They explain that when the fire broke out there was no one left in the company, and that fortunately the flames did not reach it. "We thought: 'The next one will be ours'," they recall, and they say that the situation would have become complicated, since inside the company there is "machinery and iron that would have been a significant load for the fire". They explain that among the warehouses there are some that have wheat and others that have chemicals, and that "if the fire had jumped it could have been a powder keg". "If the Firefighters had not arrived in time to stop the fire, it would have been a tragedy," they admit.

Favorable evolution

The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, has assured that the fire is evolving favorably and that the next few hours will be "decisive" to be able to declare it controlled. "The temperatures are very high and the sea breeze sometimes complicates intervention, but it is a fire that has evolved very favorably," she stressed. Regarding the causes, the minister said that the Rural Agents are investigating them and that nothing can be advanced yet. The head of intervention for the Bombers of the Anoia fire, Miguel Villa, explained that the corps is achieving the objectives it had set and that they are focusing their efforts on the left flank, the one advancing towards Vilanova del Camí and Igualada, with controlled burns by the GRAF and work with heavy machinery.

They also have their eyes on the head of the fire, which is where there is a risk that a resurgence could jump the C-15 road. If it jumps the road, it can advance towards Castellolí and reach Montserrat, a red line that the emergency services want to avoid at all costs. Villa said that the drop in humidity and the heat are causing some resurgence, but assured that there are corps personnel throughout the perimeter of the fire "to be able to act immediately if there is any flame or resurgence". "The sensations are good, but we insist that we are now entering the period when we need to pay more attention," he remarked. The fire originated on Monday evening and forced Civil Protection to request the confinement of 33,000 residents.

On the other hand, since the start of the fire, the SEM has attended to nine people: one man in a less serious condition transferred to the Hospital d'Igualada, five people in a mild condition transferred to the same hospital center, and three people who did not require transfer.