The night sky is lit up once again with fires on the summits of the Molino hills.
Only six years ago, on the night of the annual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary, the Molino burned. Two thieves thought it would make a terrific decoy for the police to set the mountains on fire!!! This time it appears it is pure carelessness: a fire to burn branches or agricultural waste that quickly got out of hand. The result: disaster!!
Apparently the fire fighting forces are still on the ground and will remain on the ground during the night. But the only remedy for the fires on the summits and on the other side of the Molino hills is air forces and they can´t fly at night.
So we must sit the night out and the fire will do its worst until daylight when the helicopters and the planes can fly again and drop hundreds of gallons of water on the flames.
Will it be too late? Probably.
The 2010 fire caused damage that will take centuries to repair. Replanting has begun but the flames have probably devoured all that already.
Why did the emergency services wait until 8pm to call in the heavy artillery and declare a Level 1 alert when they only had an hour or two of daylight to work on the blaze?
While questions will and must be asked the night sky is lit up once again with flames from the summits of the Molino hills. The residents of la Florida will not sleep easy tonight worried that a change of wind will send the flames tearing down in their direction again and most of Calasparra will sleep restlessly in the knowledge that we must live, for many years, with another charred and barren landscape.
