2023-07-09 05:00:00
Ruins of several burnt-out houses in the village of Vilar, one year after the fire Alberto Lopez
The reconstruction of the burned houses in Folgoso and A Pobra do Brolln is going slowly, and that of the groves has not even started
09 jul 2023 . Updated at 05:00 h.
At this time of summer, Vilar do Courel it should be full of life. Of temporary life, that of the emigrants who return home for vacations, because that village in the municipality of Folgoso only has two houses inhabited continuously. Or rather it had, because one of them burned down on July 17 of last year, just like most of the town. The enormous fire that had been advancing through the Serra do Courel for two days that Sunday became an unstoppable monster that went up and down mountains, surpassed the Lor River and reduced to rubble or left damaged 14 of the 15 houses in the village. One to the despus, still destroyed, so the vacationers have not come. There’s some rebuilding going on, but most of it’s still as it was. Less the fear of another fire, which before there wasn’t and now there is.
What burned will not burn again this summer, but the fear is there, admits Tania Cobo, who has her house in Vidaln, the village that was due to burn after Vilar if the wind that fueled that fire did not change. She helped put out the fire that was burning in the Vilar rubble and she hopes to never see herself in a situation like this again, and to spend this summer without having to see any forest fires nearby.
Also the mayoress of Folgoso do Courel, Lola Castro, acknowledges seeing among the neighbors, if not fear, there is mistrust of what could happen this summer season. I try not to think about it too much —he explains—, I keep details that reassure me, like that last year was much drier than this year.
He also acknowledges a certain frustration that the reconstruction has not gone faster, but he apologizes. TOrranxronse the logs that burned, all the cluesthe pastures… With the houses, he says, everything is slower because there is a lot of paperwork and, in some cases, because the owners are waiting for the contractors they chose. But things are going slowly and the City Council is already thinking of requesting an extension from the Xunta, because most of the owners will not be able to meet the deadlines.
But the thing about the houses is not what goes the slowest. It’s all unreplantedsums up Evaristo Méndez, from the Froxn Miracle Fountain association. Last summer not even the copses, usual natural barriers against fire, were a guarantee. 100% of Vilar burned, 80% of Froxn and smaller percentages in other towns. The Xunta has a project to uproot the burned chestnut trees in Vilar and plant others, but it is still in the planning phase. In Froxn there is nothing more than initiatives of neighbors helped by associations that paid for the purchase of dozens of chestnut plants. We are going to continue —Méndez promises— but what has happened?on compensates nin or 0.5% of what burned.
The economic impact
More complicated is measuring the economic effect of all that. Good part of the burned pine wood has already been felled and sold, or is in the process of becoming one, but it remains to be seen if tourism suffers. Xabier Trepat is the owner of Acampamento Courel, the only campsite in the municipality of Folgoso. They are not noticing that the reserves are going down, but they are in the north of the municipality. Everything is green here, nothing burns, he sums it up.
They have it worse at the Casa Comerciante, which with its opening in 1993 became the first rural tourism establishment from the Serra do Courel. It is in Vilamor, in the middle of the charred area. Carlos Rodrguez, its current owner says that they have half the clientele than before the fire. People go out hiking and come back almost crying, sorry.
The houses: One work started and 18 still pending
The owners of 19 houses burned down last year have received the aid authorized by the Xunta to build them again. One of them also has state subsidies, which came less because they were limited to the first homes. Of those houses that are going to be rehabilitated, 14 are in the village of Vilar, three in that of O Mazo de Santigoso, also in the municipality of Folgoso; and two in Riodebois, in A Pobra do Brolln. But for now, only one of those houses has begun, in Vilar.
Filed under: Fires Fires in Galicia Forest fires
#burned #burn #fear