The fire started on Saturday, April 21 with some illegal trash burning on the edge of the Bosque La Primavera Protected Area where I work. By Monday morning, it was burning out of control in many locations and a very well organized response was underway.
Brian Staley (the other Peace Corps Volunteer at the Bosque) and I tried to help wherever we could. Sometimes I was able to make sandwiches. Brian helped organize the massive amount of water and drinks that were donated. All day every day people pulled up in cars, pickup trucks, small vans, with medicines, eye drops, headlamps, prepared food, candy, sports drinks, water and more. Social media sites spread the word about what was needed. Bosque staff assembled things and then ferried them up to the Operations Center. They all worked extremely long hours, in hot, dusty and dry conditions.
The Operations Center was very impressive. It was located at a large open area that is used by a radio-controlled model airplane club (50 percent of the Bosque is privately-owned, with quite a few second homes and farms). The coordinated agencies had set up the Center with lots of parking for water trucks, tanks for the helicopters, an area for the distribution of drinks and food, a medical section and a press center.
Helicopters came and went, filling up with water from surprisingly small tanks on the field, regularly sending clouds of dust over everything. Trucks pulled up with tired and dirty firefighters. Officials flew in on other helicopters for the press conferences. Volunteers kept the bins of drinks filled with beverages and ice. The most popular were definitely the energy drinks – when Monster and Red Bull deliveries showed up the cans disappeared almost immediately, followed by sports drinks, with few looking for plain water. They could have used more chocolate instead of granola bars, and apples went much faster than oranges, probably because they were easier to eat.
The press conferences were interesting. It seems easier to understand the Spanish in those cases, because the authorities are speaking more formally and thinking about their words. There were definitely power struggles and little battles for turf going on the whole time, but mostly the operation was effective and organized. Trying to coordinate many hundreds of firefighters in numerous individual brigades was a real challenge. There was also a lot of talk about restoring the forest after the fire, and it seems as if one beneficial result will be a focus on more resources and support for the Bosque in the future.On Tuesday afternoon I had the chance to go into the Bosque with my counterpart, who was driving reporters to an area that was safe, but that still had some locations on fire. Over the entire Bosque the fire burned mostly the several feet of dry oak leaves covering the ground, generally not even reaching the crowns of the trees. However, in some places where the fire had been hotter all that was left was white ash on the ground and stark black tree trunks with nothing left. The sound of the fire was louder than I expected, crackling and sounding ominous even when the flames were only a few feet high. The reporters did their standup reports in front of flames, so they were happy and we headed back to the Operations Center.
On Wednesday Brian and I asked if we could go with another press tour, only to discover too late that the plan was to drive across the entire Bosque (some 25 kilometers) with us bouncing around for five hours on rough roads. We did see more fire up close, but it was a challenging afternoon. We watched the helicopters do a water drop, and it was amazing how precise and effective what seemed like a small amount of water was.
On the way back to the Operations Center we stopped because there was a new fire on El Colli, the small dome closest to the city. We stood at the edge of a field of trash, watching the fire and the helicopters putting it out. We later found out that it was caused by a woman burning cables to sell the copper. They caught her, partly because the fire looked like an arrow pointing to her house.
More than 700 firefighters from all over Mexico fought the fire, which affected more than 20,000 acres (the Protected Area is 75,000 acres). The smoke from the fires was easily visible from the City and from the Operations Center, and we could see the plumes of smoke as they waxed and waned. It was very sad when a new plume would popup, and it was great when they faded away. It was not until late on Wednesday that the fire was fully contained, though hotspots remained. I can understand why people get hooked on the excitement of firefighting, the sense of camaraderie, the feeling that you are fighting an evil force and protecting the earth. I felt sad that our beautiful Bosque was damaged but glad that we were able to help in a small way with the fight to save the forest.