The Lloret fire, the deadliest in the State: "They went down towards the ravine and couldn't get out"

Lloret de MarThe Lloret de Mar forest fire of 1979 is the deadliest in the history of the State. 21 people died there. Residents of the Los Pinares urbanization, frightened by the flames, fled their homes and, like the victims of the deadly fire in Almeria this July, they put themselves in the wolf's throat without being able to escape the fire.

It was an August 7th. Early in the morning, several residents alerted the authorities after spotting smoke in the forests located west of the old Vidreres road. The flames were advancing towards Los Pinares and Lloret Blau, two developments surrounded by pine forests. The Lloret volunteer firefighter brigade (there were no professional ones at the time) arrived with tanker trucks and very rudimentary equipment. By midday, the fire already presented a front of almost a kilometer, and reinforcements were requested from Girona, Barcelona, and neighboring municipalities. Around one o'clock, the flames crossed the Vidreres road and began to threaten the first houses.

In the afternoon, the alert arrived that burnt bodies had been located near a bend in the road. The police and the mayor, Jordi Domènech, found, in a hollow, the 21 charred corpses, piled on top of each other. The tragedy shocked the town and mobilized journalists, Red Cross personnel, President Josep Tarradellas, councilors, ministers, and the army. The following hours were marked by the identification of the victims through prosthetics, jewelry, and other personal belongings, while emergency teams continued working until dawn. Among the victims were entire families, small children, and even infants of a few months.

Face to face with the flames as they called for coffins on the radio channel

Two of the volunteer firefighters who experienced the tragedy up close are Jordi Martínez and Felip Carbonell. Martínez was the head of the Lloret volunteer firefighters and, subsequently, served as mayor, a deputy in the Parliament, and in 1984, appointed by Jordi Pujol, Director General of Fire Prevention and Extinction of the Generalitat. Carbonell, on the other hand, was only sixteen years old and worked in the municipal brigade. Over the years, he became head of Civil Protection in Lloret, a position from which he recently retired.

"When there was a fire, we confiscated a 10,000-liter tanker truck that transported water between Lloret and Tossa. With these means, we positioned ourselves at the entrance of Los Pinares, but the fire passed over us without us almost realizing it and entered the urbanization," recalls Martínez. "We went in approximately one kilometer to check if there was anyone, but we didn't see anyone," he describes. While working on the Lloret Blau flank, through the radio channel we heard that the police were asking for coffins. "Then I understood that something very big had happened," he concludes. Carbonell also remembers those moments with great intensity: "There was no organization like now. You were doing the brigade's job, and suddenly, the police warned us that there was a fire. There were no phones. We collected the tools, went there, and started throwing water where there were no flames yet. Before, fires could be attacked head-on, you saw them coming; now it's impossible," he reminisces.

The victims did not know the terrain

The Los Pinares urbanization was very new then, built during the real estate boom of the sixties and seventies, with unpaved streets and unsheltered pipes. Most of the homes were second residences for families from the Barcelona metropolitan area, who knew little about the area. For Martínez, this lack of knowledge, as has also happened in the case of Almeria, is key to understanding the outcome and highlights the importance of the current protocol of not self-evacuating without an order from the Firefighters. "They didn't know the terrain. They passed very close to a water tank that could have served as a refuge. And at La Creu de Lloret, if they had continued upwards, they would probably have been saved. Instead, they went down towards the ravine from which they could not escape," he explains.

From the very beginning, it was suspected that the fire had been caused by four simultaneous outbreaks, but the investigation never identified the perpetrators. The developers of Los Pinares were also tried for alleged urban planning deficiencies that would have hindered evacuation, but they were ultimately acquitted.

Forty-seven years later, Los Pinares has returned to normal. Detached houses with swimming pools and gardens predominate, in a residential development with many second homes and rental properties for foreigners. Most of the families who lived there in 1979 no longer reside there and many of the current residents are unaware of the details of the tragedy. However, every August 7, relatives of the victims and institutional representatives lay a floral offering in front of the commemorative plaque at the entrance.

Urbanization has modernized, but the risk of fire remains very latent. Carbonell, who for years has been a specialist in risk assessment, corroborates this and warns that emergency service instructions must always be followed. In forty years, the forest has completely regenerated, especially with pine, one of the most flammable species due to its resin, and, in addition, the perimeter strips and firebreaks of the cultivated fields have decreased. "When you add the sixth-generation episodes and firestorms, it's truly frightening," concludes the former head of Civil Protection.