Rubén and Juan Manuel, who were sleeping in a family home in Las Barreras, near the old Hogar Escuela de La Esperanza, are two of the 28 people who until yesterday were rehoused in the Leticia Bautista pavilion in El Chorrillo, at the top of Radazul. Rubén says that “we were already warned, but it was at dawn when the Civil Guard arrived and ordered us to evacuate, we could only leave with what we were wearing, I took Alas (a German shepherd dog) and a cat, but the two Persian cats they lost”, although he hopes to return home soon because he knows that they would not go very far, although he put on a poker face when he was warned that the eviction could last all weekend: “I don’t even want to think about that”
Both Rubén, as well as Juan Manuel, describe the episode lived that night as “dantesque”, because everything happened very quickly, “I don’t know why – Rubén explains – the fire passed from the edge of one mountain to another, perhaps because of the strong wind that usually blows there, because yesterday there was already a breeze and now it is pulling towards the part of Las Rosas and La Esperanza”. “I know that last night, he tells us, they put up two checkpoints with vats to defend the houses, but I’m already at the worst.”
“They evacuated us, but we were not informed of anything, nor where we were going or anything, until a social worker from the City Council told us that this shelter would be set up in the morning, but until then we spent the night in the car.”
María Luisa and Clodomiro, a couple from Lomo Pelado, were also evicted, but at nine in the morning. “Three policemen came and kicked us out, they wanted us to take the cylinder, but we didn’t have cars to get it out of the house,” says María Luisa, who said she was scared when “the fire started this morning in the middle of Montaña Grande, with houses attached to it. on Preventorio street, and without any helicopter coming at that time”. The couple brought three dogs with them, and she is not afraid that the fire will reach her house, still thinking about the canister. Clodomiro, on the other hand, was worried about her health. “I hope he’s not here tonight, because I need to collect the papers because tomorrow (for today) I have an appointment with the doctor for treatment.”
The rancher Pilar Carballo, evicted in Arafo
The renowned organic meat farmer in Arafo, Pilar Carballo, like her colleague Yenifer Santos, was also evicted on the first day of the fire, although initially no one could have thought that the fire was going to penetrate Galván, where Pilar has her farm and her farm. “They told me not to worry and then at eight o’clock at night I had to take out my organic Canarian sheep with hair and chickens and this afternoon, around five o’clock, the Civil Guard also evicted me and all my neighbors. In short, this is a disaster and the fire is totally out of control”. Carballo took her sheep to a corral that a neighbor in the town gave him and the chickens to an old farm.
