"They were not strangers, they were neighbors of Bédar": the town most affected by the Almería fire returns home

Bédar (Almeria)Everything has changed in the space of three hours. At noon, Bédar, the municipality most affected by the Almeria fire where the twelve fatal victims lived, was a lifeless town. All the shutters were down, only emergency service vehicles went up and down, there were only four counted neighbors sitting on a bar terrace. Perched on top of a mountain, with the sea in the background, Bédar is a collection of white houses, most of which are spotless after the fire, which has indeed burned and blackened all the surrounding vegetation. Bédar also consists of dozens of scattered houses, some of authentic luxury, most also well-preserved even though the fire surrounded them.

From four in the afternoon, a trickle of cars has been parading through the town. Vehicles entering the town with their windows down, their passengers observing the completely burnt landscape from the window. They were the 700 evacuees from Bédar, who, three days later, have been able to return home. Drivers honk their horns to celebrate their return and the shutters are going up as the minutes pass. Life is returning to the town.

This Sunday, emergency services have declared the Almeria fire stable. This has allowed dozens of evacuees to return to their homes and some of the firefighters deployed to the area to rest. A hundred personnel have searched the hectares where there was a higher risk of finding bodies. The search has concluded with no further findings. The fire has so far affected approximately 7,000 hectares, claimed 13 lives, and left 23 people unaccounted for. This Monday, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez will visit the scene. The latest victim was registered this Sunday. It is a 93-year-old woman who was admitted to Torrecárdenas Hospital in Almeria and had pre-existing conditions.

The reunion

This Saturday afternoon, Emilia, the pharmacist from Bédar, picked up the ARA on the phone and lamented the lives lost, especially that of a couple she considered family. When they told her that the road was reopening only for residents, she got in her car and went up to the village to open the pharmacy for those residents who needed medication. Her door has become the scene of constant reunions. With Maribel, with Frenkie... The neighbors, moved, hug each other and share their suffering.

Quickly, the conversation turns to those who are missing. To the couple who lived on top of the hill. To the Belgian client who always said thank you with a smile. "I saw him every morning with the milk carton". "I played a billiards championship with him". "They always went so elegantly...". "Do we know how the man in the Seville Hospital is?". "Has the woman who lives on this street appeared yet?". And they review the tragic stories. Frenkie remembers that a family friend fled the fire by car with her husband. There were several vehicles fleeing in the same direction, but the fire caught up with them and they decided to flee on foot. It was the large bulk of fatalities. Frenkie remembers that the family friend told his wife not to get out of the car, but she did, and he saved himself by stretching out in the back, with his cat. Most of the victims lived in the upper part of Bédar, in houses on top of a hill.

And there are fleeting moments of hope. "Wasn't that car coming theirs? No, it's not them." "I need to know if he's still alive, I even looked up his full name on pharmacy prescriptions to ask about it." "The best always leave." "I see the house, there in the distance, and I still see them." Maribel explains that her father saved his herd of goats by walking up the mountain against the fire. He did not accept the evacuation, he wanted to save the goats. They remember that the fire was moving at an "incredible" speed, that they left running for their lives, that they did not receive any alerts on their mobile phones. They wonder if staying home would have been a better option. They also celebrate that the vast majority of the houses are fine and get emotional every time a new neighbor arrives and they know they are okay. But they are also angry.

Integration

A large majority of Bédar's residents eye with suspicion the few journalists who have accessed their municipality. The reason? They have read reports in which it is stated, the residents comment, that the fatalities lost their lives because they were foreigners who did not know the terrain, did not know the language, were not integrated into the municipality. This angers them. "They were one of us in the community, they were neighbors of Bédar, they were not foreigners," they affirm. Bédar is a multicultural municipality. In the conversation between Frenkie, Emilia, and Maribel, people pass by who stop for a moment. At one point, Spanish, English, and French were spoken. "Everyone is very integrated," they insist. Simply, they explain, the fire caught them very quickly and they could do nothing to save themselves. What should be blamed is whether the power line where the fire started was not well maintained or if the vegetation – mainly composed of shrubs and few trees – was well cared for.

For this reason, numerous residents ask journalists not to film or to leave Bédar directly, as they could not be there. The bar was only open to residents and emergency services. In some cases, they call the Civil Guard directly when they see a camera. The police respond by identifying the journalists, inviting them to leave, and threatening them with a fine. Meanwhile, Bédar's ground is still warm, it still burns the soles of your shoes when you step on it. It still smells of burnt and smokes. There is still a long way to turn the page.