One night waiting for the fire in Lubrín, a town threatened by the tragic fire of Almeria

Lubrín (Almeria)Everything is dark except for the sky, which is a reddish-orange color. But the sun is neither rising nor setting. It is a quarter past four in the morning, and we are on the road leading to Lubrín, the Andalusian municipality to which the tragic wildfire in Almeria, which has already left 12 dead and 23 people unaccounted for. Intense tongues of fire burn ever closer. The smoke has forced the confinement of a village that is awake, judging by the lit lights escaping from the windows. Animals, cats, rabbits, wild boars, and birds are seen moving disoriented. Blue lights are glimpsed in the distance, but an uneasy calm prevails.

At the entrance to the town, its Councilor for Emergencies, Raúl Hernández, is dejected, sitting on a plastic chair. The advance of the fire towards his town has also forced the evacuation of some neighborhoods. The residents were notified by knocking on doors, going through the streets with a megaphone. What do you expect? "For the sun to come out and the planes to be able to fly. The terrain is complicated, it is not easy for firefighters to work there at night." Two units from the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) are also waiting at the same location for reinforcements from the sky.

It's five in the morning. Raúl Hernández hasn't slept for hours. Lubrín became the welcoming scene for the residents most affected by the fire, those living in scattered houses in Bédar, most of them foreigners settled in this rural area of Almeria. It was Thursday afternoon and cars began to arrive in Lubrín, some with burnt and injured people. Like an elderly woman who arrived with 50% of her body burnt and is now hospitalized, narrates the councilman. The residents of Lubrín welcomed the evacuated people in various spaces, such as the theatre or the funeral home. Up to 65 people appeared out of nowhere, from amidst the smoke. Now, these survivors, who escaped the fire as best they could, have been relocated to hotels in a coastal city. Meanwhile, Lubrín holds its breath, because the fire is getting closer and closer.

It is surprising how this wait is made in silence, how sirens or practically any cars are not heard. The atmosphere is deserted. A man and a woman are sitting on a bench, with their dog lying at their feet, and they try to sleep half embracing each other. They are Italian and live in a house that is within the fire perimeter. The police evacuated them and they cannot return. They admit they don't know if their house has burnt down. Inside the funeral home there are several people sleeping, mostly elderly residents of Lubrín, evacuated as a precaution. The smell of burning is getting more intense and the smoke is visible in the middle of the night. It is six in the morning and the forecasts are not good.

But with the arrival of the sun, fortunately, optimism also arrives. Several UME units are returning. "It was a tough night," they admit. However, it seems it has been a good night: they explain that they have managed to slow the advance of the fire and that the situation in Lubrín is no longer so delicate. The councilor smiles. They expected it to be windy and it is not, and right now the forecast is much better. Inside the funeral home, Mari Molina, 81, is having breakfast. She says she is from Malgrat de Mar and spends her summers in a neighborhood of Lubrín. As soon as they arrived, when she hadn't even unpacked her suitcases, they knocked on the door and told them they had to leave. She spent the night at the funeral home and says she couldn't sleep. However, she says she doesn't feel unsafe or worried. The Italian couple also arrives for breakfast, a meal served by Red Cross volunteers. Everything has changed in a matter of two hours. An environmental agent from the Junta de Andalucía explains that last year the surroundings of Lubrín were already burned, and that this has been key to stopping the fire.

The beginning of fire

With the arrival of the sun, the landscape of this area of Andalusia can also be seen, dry and with very few trees but many shrubs, which together with the wind caused the fire to advance very quickly. We have to imagine the epicenter of the fire as a small dry mountain range surrounded by towns, such as Los Gallardos (to the east) or Lubrín (on the opposite side, to the west, which is where the fire is advancing). In the middle of the mountain range there are scattered municipalities, such as Bédar, one of the most affected. Urbanizations of houses located illogically follow one another.

The starting point of the fire, which affects almost 7,000 hectares, is many kilometers from Lubrín. This Saturday, early in the morning, Civil Guard agents and agents from the Environment Department of the Junta de Andalucía were analyzing a dilapidated and burnt-out roadside restaurant near Los Gallardos. They explain that this is the exact spot where the fire started. And how did it start? They reply that everything points to a spark from an electrical cable, even though the restaurant in question had been dilapidated and closed for years. In any case, they state that the fire, driven by the wind, reached an unprecedented speed in Andalusia, and made a long run that crossed the road and joined several scrub-covered hills. The Environment agents – the Andalusian counterparts of the Rural Agents – were satisfied after a "long and hard" night. If everything continues as it is, they do not rule out stabilizing the fire in a few hours.