The residents of La Matanza experienced the advance of the fire with great anxiety and concern. The worst thing, according to its mayor, Ignacio Rodríguez, was the uncertainty about how it was going to evolve. The citizens from neighborhoods like La Vica or El Pirul saw their properties threatened; The worst night was experienced from Friday to Saturday in the upper area of La Vica. Rodríguez assures that the media arrived just at the moment when a further advance to Reventón could be stopped, which would have allowed the fire to destroy homes. It is a story that gives goosebumps, with six hundred people evacuated, the vast majority slept in relatives’ homes or second homes. La Matanza had to use its own resources, such as park and garden workers and its own tank, to try to stop the advance of the flames when, according to what they say, there were no other means to help with the extinction. When everything seemed to be under control and the damage to homes was limited, smoke became another new threat. It is the story of a fire in a municipality that does not have livestock activity but does have agriculture, whose forest was affected by 90% and the chestnut growing area by 30%, an important economic income for the families of La Matanza.
What conclusions do you draw from a situation as complicated as the one experienced in the August fire?
That more coordination is needed. Or plain coordination because there really wasn’t any. We were waiting all night and we were not warned of anything, when it arrived at the municipality on Friday, it was horrible. We were activated for that eventuality, we had the municipal offices, the senior residence and other resources available, but having to take people out of their homes, leaving everything behind is a blow for the population that will be affected for a long time.
What is your assessment of the extinction work?
First of all, we must thank everyone for what they did, for their work and effort. I experienced it very directly, the professionalism and the risk that was taken when the firefighters were intervening to save the homes… It is a very difficult situation with a lot of stress and those people knew how to direct what was destined to become a tragedy. But before that moment, the worst was the desperation, restlessness and helplessness because we did not know when the fire was going to reach the municipality. This is a defect that must be resolved for the future, we must correct the coordination and the information that reaches the municipal corporations, which cannot be left out of the information because we are the ones who are directly affected, and the ones who We are dealing with a population that is in a state of shock and needs to know what is happening and if their lives and belongings are safe. It is something that I have discussed with the president of the Cabildo, and we are already late in sitting down to calmly analyze what can be improved in the face of possible new events. Furthermore, a fire that has burned so many hectares cannot be called a success. However, I insist that we must congratulate the means of extinction and the population that had an exemplary response, not only obeying the instructions of the authorities, but also being supportive and helping those who were in a situation of eviction in the way in which each one could.
Helicopters or seaplanes?
This issue has been debated on more than one occasion, and it is the technicians who must decide. But when you see how a helicopter is handled, which in the case of this last fire came to collect water from our municipality, although then they left to deliver it to others, you realize that the most operational thing is a helicopter. However, I believe that the first thing to do, before fueling any controversy, is to meet with the affected municipalities to carry out a calm analysis of what has happened, what to improve and incorporate the point of view of each municipal official for the future. . We are already late in this and from here we can learn positive lessons to prepare ourselves for the future so that the time does not come when we encounter another fire and we have only been regretting it.
How will La Matanza recover from this fire?
We are still in the damage assessment phase. Among other things, we will have to analyze how we can improve the public forest area and the interface with the crop areas and agree with the technicians to allow intervention where agricultural, forestry or livestock use can be made, which is currently prohibited. or very limited.
