Lucky Escape for Alcútar

Bérchules sister village, Alcútar hit the national headlines yesterday when a second brush fire in the space of three days threatened to engulf a section of the village. Sixty families from the lower neighbourhoods of barrios Baena and Los Castillos were forced to evacuate their homes as the flames came within 100m of engulfing their houses.

Local firefighters and helicopters and aircraft spent five hours battling numerous different outbreaks of fire on the lower slopes of the valley of the Río Grande.

The fire broke out just 72 hours after a previous fire threatened the northern outskirts of the village of Narila lower down the valley. This second outbreak was the more serious as it ignited cultivated fields rather than the scrubland that was destroyed earlier in the week. At one point the fire swept up a barranco (ravine) towards Bérchules with flames in certain points leaping high above the level of the treetops.

Four helicopters and three planes doused the flames with water and red powder extinguisher in an attempt to keep the blaze from reaching inhabited areas of the municipality. Neighbours meanwhile doused their houses with water from buckets and hoses so that flying sparks would not ignite new outbreaks.

The causes of the fires of Monday and Thursday have not yet been established but there is a concern that they may have been started deliberately.

Fortunately, no one was injured and all the livestock kept in various barns and corrals down the valley were rescued and led to safety. Damages have not yet been fully assessed but a number of fields of tomatoes and green beans were severely affected thus damaging the livelihoods of several village families.