036 - Arde Galicia - Galicia/Spain

Galicia and Portugal are stunning countries and great places to visit - but this event made me move-out from Baiona -> the fire of October 2017

This article will not have a map as all the other previous articles -> the reason: a wildfire can start no matter where, and while it was more powerful in Vigo, Nigran and Baiona... 

Let me start with the beginning:

Back in September 2017 we planned a trip into Asturias region of Spain (future articles) and since we had four free days at work (including the weekend), we had to focus on one or maybe two places to see. 

And so, finally on the 12th of October 2017, in the morning, I started to pack the last things necessary for the trip, check the batteries of the camera, check that I have all my reservations ready, and when I went to put the stuff in the car, I smelled fire (back then I was living in Baiona, and outside it was less than 20°C). 

Knowing about the wildfires in Portugal (that I saw also while in Braga), I made the connection with this moment and just to be safe, we (me and wife) packed more stuff in the car (work computers, other camera gear, documents, etc.)

036.1 After 1000km of driving in 4 days, on the 15th of October, as we were passing Santiago de Compostela we started to see that at 4 PM, the sky was casting a warm light, typical to sunset light which was still 4 hours away at this point. As we drove more we saw that those were not rain clouds, more like smoke clouds or maybe some sand from Sahara (I saw those when I was in France).

036.2 Close to Pontevedra there was definitely smoke in the air, and just like seen in the images, the light was dimmed a lot and had a yellow, orange tint to it. We did not see firefighter trucks, but we did see these army vehicles so I was confused.

036.3 We were on the highway opposite to Redondela and there is where we saw the fire and the cause of the weird light outside. While my wife was driving, I used the camera to both see far in the distance but also make pictures of something that I never thought to live. I always saw this on the TV or from very far away, but never so close and not in a place where rain is more common than full sunny day. 

036.4 As we arrived to the Puente de Rande, we then saw why the sky was orange. Somewhere not far from Vigo, there was more forest burning.

036.5 Also very scary for us was the fact that from the highway we could not see the factory. Imagine if it would have burned out, the huge loss for the community and all the people who work there (directly or not) not to mention my workplace... and to be honest, while insurances can help with money to rebuild, or aid can do that too, but what after? Hope someone will build back the workplace also?

036.6 As we got closer and closer to home (Baiona) we started to feel heat in our veins -> it was from Baiona the big smoke -> and worse (for us), our residential area, (right in the top center of the image and then spanning to the right side) was engulfed in smoke. 

036.7 Yup, fire was just outside our building, right in front of the parking area. I did not see anybody throw water on that bush, so I went to put water in buckets and try at least to wet all the other bushes, parking area (car tires, and the car basically).

036.8 While I was throwing water on the vegetation in front of “my” terrace I saw many times these yellow airplanes (Bombardier CL415) and then ran inside to get the camera; shortly after a second plane came above one of my neighbors house (many residents were still not home from the mini-vacation). 

036.9 These planes and the ground crew (which I did not see to be honest, maybe they were someplace else or they thought that the lack of trees in the residential area will cut the propagation of the wildfire) are so impressive to see on duty and you feel real joy that can only be felt if you go through something like this. I wish humanity will always feel like they have to be there to fight for humanity (unlike tech companies which I feel.... they act against general folk at times). 

036.10 The way these firefighting planes “work” is “simple” - on the “belly” there is a trapdoor that when the plane goes low enough on calm waters (like in this golf - Ria de Baiona) it gets water inside, door closes and then the plane picks a “target”, flies there, and deploys the “bucket” of water on that area. And then they do maneuvers to loose speed, descend and repeat the process.

036.11 These heroes of the sky impressed me so much I had to make them in 3D (in Blender) and to be honest, I don’t remember searching for a blueprint of a vehicle (air, ground, rail, water) and finding so easy, so many sketches. Once I finished the airplane (which was not so complicated since it has a more simple shape than a Airbus (see Vigo article) I felt like I should also do the fire, so to make it more sense. But making mountains covered in trees and fire and smoke is complicated for my level and my available time so I opted on reusing my low-poly trees from Baiona, some buildings, and made it look like Nigran (a bit) and then researched how to make smoke in Blender. So yeah, unlike other articles, here I spent most of the time, on the fire-smoke-water falling from plane. 

036.12 New lines of fire were appearing in the distance and the fire, like I said before, was literally just outside the door. When I started to poor water on the parking and then on the terrace and the house bellow ours etc. then, I could barely see any fire in Nigran. Now... I was seeing clearly the traces of lava-like fire, plus new ones. 

We decided, best to evacuate the place, we already had stuff in the car so we just left. It was soon getting dark and many were on the road already. 

In Vigo it was a very different atmosphere, a lot of smoke and people wearing wet towels on their faces, covering nose and mouth (we did the same), and what was “funny” was that there were not few people, outside, watching the football game on the TV at the pub and … smoking! 

Of course I did not check all pubs to say that all were doing this, but still funny non the less. 

We joined the people, eating nachos with sauce and drinking a 1906 while telling our friends what was like in Baiona/Nigran. 

Since we are in Vigo now... how about the next article to be about: Vigo!

Thank you for reading, or watching the pictures and we hope it was a useful read!

MiDe.

The following legend, it is not related to wildfires, however, it has fire in it. It also happens to be related to a "magical" ritual, Queimada, that might have been done also on the Celtic New Year -> 1st of November. The wildfire was in mid-October so... 

Source: https://viajecaminodesantiago.com/fr/curiosites/queimada/