-_Extinguishing A Fire In The Forest, From Inside_-

   Yes, that is how part of the Sierra Calderona was left after the fire, which affected both the Valencian municipality of Gátova and the Castellón municipalities of Segorbe, Altura and Soneja.

   A total of 1,200 hectares devastated (12,000,000 square meters), attributed to the impact of lightning on a tree during a thunderstorm.

   There we were about 500 troops on foot and about 30 aerial means to get reduce the fire.

   But let's start at the beginning of this story...

For those who do not know what my current profession is, here is one of the introductions to my life that talks about it.

[ENGLISH/SPANISH] Well...,This Is Me! (Part 1) / Bien...,Este Soy Yo!! (Parte 1)

   Our platoon was alerted at 06:00 a.m. to relieve and give a well-deserved and necessary rest to the other platoons who were fighting the fire during the night.

   The staff was distributed in various vehicles, such as fire engines, nurse vehicles, transmission vehicles...

   To the bulk of the staff we were put in a bus after getting all our gear and headed towards the insertion point in the forest.

   A journey of about fifty minutes from our military base.

   Once we got to the forest, they assigned areas of fire attack to our platoon leaders, and we divided by teams.

   We fully equipped with helmet, siroquera, nape covers, protective glasses, masks, fireproof gloves and fireproof boots and we prepared all the necessary material for the attack and defense of the assigned areas, such as hoes, axes, spikes and a great quantity of firehoses with pressurized water, of course.

   Our bus was assigned to a sensitive area, where a possible return of the fire due to the changing wind and the high temperatures, could have revived the fire and burn some green areas that had not been burned yet.

   And we were not going to spoil it.

   So we started by introducing ourselves into the already burnt areas, and suppressing all those embers that are likely to produce a new focus because of its proximity to the previously unburned areas.

   In my case it was my first real fire, but I was fortunate to have a great team of professionals and veterans in my squad, so among all we managed to do the hard work easier and, of course, achieve our goal.

   The field work is hard, I must admit; You carry on a lot of equipment that added to the heat of the high temperatures, the smoke thinning the air, the ashes flying into your eyes in any occasion that you raise the glasses to dry the sweat, the lines of hose with pressure water they become very heavy when they carry many stretches and they have to be moved lightly up and down the abrupt orography of the mountain in order to attack the various affected areas.

   A lot of physical effort and a lot of liquid loss, but we were mitigating it with the abundant bottles of isotonic drinks and water, as well as food bags and snacks at different times, which our good Supply Section provided to us on the line.

   The area was also complicated by being an urban forest environment, alternating forest areas with urbanized areas, such as chalets, small country houses, farm tool sheds, etc...

   Thanks to our work all that area was secured and we did not have to lament any kind of personal or material damage.

   As I said earlier, the day was exhausting; We finished at 9:30 p.m., when another section of our unit took over, to continue to control the fire at night and not to be revived.

   A total of seventeen hours passed from the time I woke up that day until I got home again, with a pleasant feeling of having worked hard to stop the fire; To safeguard our dear and important local flora and fauna.

   Because I tell you one thing, dear friends and colleagues...

   Although I ended up exhausted...

   There is nothing more gratifying than the sense of duty fulfilled.

Corporal Cabanes, Telecommunications Specialist.