The El Capricho cattle farm, owned by José Gordón, was affected by one of the fires in León
Up to 14 wildfires have ravaged the province of León in recent days. The ferocity of the flames has spared no human lives (one volunteer has died, several are critically injured, and thousands have been affected), nor natural monuments, nor animals or crops.
“We’ve managed to get the animals to safety because we were able to open the gates of the enclosures and let them out. We’re confident they’ll return, but the fire isn’t out yet. For now, we’ve lost the unharvested grain crops, and we’re extremely worried, not only for ourselves but for everyone affected by the fire,” he commented. In fact, on his social media, Gordón hasn’t lamented his own fate, but rather that of the entire province, and in particular, the death of Abel Ramos, a young man from La Bañeza, who was well-loved in the region and was caught in the fire while volunteering to fight the blaze in Castrocalbón, which had spread from the province of Zamora. “Yesterday, our beloved town experienced one of the darkest hours in its history,” he said in a video posted on Instagram.
This morning, Gordón received a call from Luis Lera, whose province has also been battling four wildfires in recent hours. "Luckily, the fire isn't reaching us, because there's hardly any vegetation left in Castroverde de Campos, but we're 50 kilometers from the fire, and we feel as if we're the ones being burned, as if we're being driven from our land. Rural Spain is becoming an excessively punished Spain," he said.
Luis Lera, elected mayor of the rural chefs at Terrae Gran Canaria, an international congress of rural gastronomy, was emphatic: “The abandonment of extensive livestock farming, agriculture, and forest environments leaves the land unprotected. The province of Soria has many hectares of forest, a large vegetation cover, and it isn't suffering the terrible fires we have here. Why? Because there is sustainable forestry and the countryside is cared for. Here, all that arrives are solar panels and renewable energy projects. At a certain point, you realize that 14 simultaneous fires can't be a coincidence. In any case, public agricultural policies are a disaster, and the worst part is that we have few voices to demand change, but it's time to stand up and fight or throw in the towel,” he said.
Regarding the damage caused by the fire to animals like those belonging to José Gordón and other livestock farmers, Lera pointed out that "it's not just about the physical injuries they may suffer, but also the stress, the tremendous suffering caused. It's impossible to know how long it takes an animal to recover from such trauma, and how long it will take us humans," he concluded.
