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In the early morning of September 8, 2024, all alarms went off as a fire began to spread Sierra Bermeja without the forest firefighters being able to do anything to prevent the spread of the flames. And so began the nightmare of the Genal Valley. It lasted 46 days.
This forest fire ended up destroying more than 8,400 hectares belonging to seven towns in Malaga: Estepona (4,117 hectares); Casares, Jubrique, Genalguacil (1,000 hectares each); Júzcar (471), Faraján (285) and Benahavís (0.48). 2,000 of them belong to private land. In addition, 2,670 people had to leave their homes with anguish and chest pains, because they did not know what they would find when they returned.
No one could believe what was happening. The mountains they had seen growing were disappearing before their eyes and the firefighters, despite all they gave, were unable to cope. Of course, their performance will always be remembered, as more than 6,000 INFOCA staff members were working and They had to fire the Almeria firefighter Carlos Martínez Haro who died in service.
It is good to remember that The fire has been classified as a sixth generation fire. and gave rise to its own meteorology with the formation of pyrocumulus clouds that caused new fires, leaving little space for the firefighters and complicating their task, as they had to fight against the very complicated orography and the dense forest mass.
Today, three years later, precisely, 1,095 days later After the fire broke out, mayors of some of the worst-hit municipalities said it had wasted a lot of woodMany neighbors lost their businesses and what supported the family economy and aid did not arrive.
Mayors of Jubrique and Genalguacil
In this sense, Alberto Benitez, mayor of Jubrique, maintains that “Last year, no work was done on the issue of wood from fires. and it was possible, so it was no longer possible to enjoy it. Likewise, he adds that much of the wood affected by the flames was removed, but “we saw how the pines split because they were rotten, making the wood totally useless.”
“What the neighbors think is that much of this wood could have been removed even making calls for tenders for the forestry companies that we have here in the municipality,” adds Benítez, who says that there have also been things that have been corrected.
Among the works carried out, the road improvements stand out.The fire damaged the containment fences and they have been repaired“, adds the councilor. In addition, he assures that this year, more precisely in April, they managed to recover the water catchments lost in the fire.
For his part, Miguel Ángel Herrera, mayor of Genalguacil, assures that theMunicipalities affected by the 2021 fire are abandoned by public administrations. He also points out that “the work done in the mountains has been minimal. Near the road yes so that they are visible, but then in cross-country no.
In this sense, he points out that during the fire, cork oaks over 300 years old were burned and These trees “will take at least two or three generations to recover.”“He also assures that the families who lost their farms that year received “no help.”
In the same way that Jubrique recovered the water catchments burned three years ago, in Genalguacil Pipe recovery work will now begin which were lost at that time.
This is why the two advisors, looking to the future, hope that the mountains can gradually recover and “with the hope of seeing her again one day as she was.”
