Those who have never been in a wildfire won't truly know what a wildfire is. They watch those movies where the hero jumps through the flames heroically and saves the girl, and then everyone lives happily ever after. Well, a real wildfire won't let you get close even one meter, because the heatwave emanating from it will be such that it won't allow you to take another step. I think I thought that when I was in my first wildfire. We were in La Limonera, in the karting area, fighting the wildfire caused by the drought, where the dry vegetation burned easily due to the enormous temperatures.
We ran around trying to put them out with our instruments.
"Guys, make a firebreak with rakes and shovels, you two keep trying to quell those two flames and Hector, tell Leal to bring the tanker here to quench this line of fire," Cristian shouted, making his voice heard through the crackle of burning branches.
That wildfire was only the first of many that we would have that week. We hardly slept. At that time, it was the COVID era. In addition to attending to multi-trauma patients from car accidents, we also had to transport COVID patients to isolation if they were asymptomatic. If they were not asymptomatic and were seriously ill, we had to take them to different hospitals. However, the story is not about those incidents.
In addition to all that work, we also had to attend to wildfires and do a 5x5 shift. Five days working and five days off. You can imagine a whole week fighting forest fires. We didn't sleep, we finished fighting one and another one arose, so we didn't rest, but even divided and went to another sector. It was madness.
We arrived at the headquarters, and as soon as I lay down to rest my eyes, the radio would sound, informing of a wildfire, and we would dash out.
"We're not sleeping tonight, Ricky! It's wildfire season," Hector said excitedly.
I couldn't see a hill full of vegetation because I exclaimed full of euphoria:
"See those bushes, they're asking for combustion, soon we'll be here quenching those flames, buddy."
"Hector, enough!" I said scandalized.
However, those wildfires couldn't compare to the one that happened on the volcano. Not even the one where we couldn't sleep one night and spent the whole night trying to put it out. I remember when we arrived at the headquarters, we all lined up to remove the soot. We looked like we had come from the war.
There was one that left us totally marked, especially me, because it was the wildfire where I almost died.
"Where's the wildfire?" I asked as the jeep raced through the streets of Baruta at full speed.
"On the volcano, son," Petit said, driving like a madman avoiding street vehicles. "We'll be alone there, there won't be a tanker to help us mitigate the wildfire. It's us walking on the terrain putting out the fire, so coordination is vital."
Petit looked at Ray, Lugo, Irimar, and me in the rearview mirror.
"You who know the mountain, now you will know it in a different way," Lugo said laughing, the other wildfire crazy.
Volcano is just the name of the place, there's no volcano in that area, not even an inactive one. However, with the wildfire we witnessed, it could come pretty close to that designation.
The entourage that would mitigate the wildfire was 10 people. Among them was Adam, who wasn't sure about fighting the wildfire. He wasn't one of those who actively participated in such activities.
The smoke was visible from the point where we were located. We approached, and the trees crackled. It was as if nature was screaming for help. The smell of burning could be perceived from afar, and the ashes fell on our heads.
"Whose fault is it? Who made the silly decision to fight that wildfire in such a pronounced area, without considering the wind conditions?" the director of PC Baruta shouted, two hours later. "Tell me, Lugo, did you not consider any of these factors? Weren't you in charge, if you're the one with the most experience fighting wildfires?"
It was incredible that after almost dying, I had to endure a scolding. It wasn't directed at me, but it was for all of us. We all had our heads down, our spirits crushed. No one had died, but we came close.
In an attempt to fight that mountain fire, I remember being ordered to go directly downhill towards the fire, giving it everything we had to try to put it out. We were optimistic that we could extinguish the entire fire, but then the wind direction changed, and the fire literally came to life. It was like a dragon spitting fire at us. The worst part was that we were in the green zone.
"Jump to the burned zone! Try everything to jump to the burned zone!" Lugo repeated, moving to the burned zone. "Come on, Ricky, jump over!"
"I'm going to fall!" I shouted, starting to climb up the green zone.
However, Adam was falling behind with the water pump on his back.
From there, I remember little. I know I tried to help him and carry the pump myself, but in the end, we had to drop that weight and keep climbing. Some say I was screaming that I didn't want to die. I just know that I slipped several times and felt the heat of the fire approaching my back. The crackling of the vegetation was too close and constant. The pressure of death made me desperate several times, pulling on the vegetation to keep climbing.
Adam was falling behind, and I had to urge him to keep climbing. I couldn't even hear Lugo's voice shouting for us to jump to the burned zone, which was right next to us, but the terrain was too dangerous to jump. If we jumped to that zone, we would surely fall into the void.
We got out of that death area with the help of other colleagues who pulled us to the burned zone with their rakes. There I fell to the completely black and lifeless ground, laughing at how close I was to death, while Adam cried for having narrowly escaped. I didn't stay there waiting to think about how close I had been to dying; I went in search of Lugo and the others who had moved to the safe zone but could still be in danger by not being in a secure area.
"Brother, how can you be so full of energy and vitality after almost dying?" Adam said to me when we were all safe and sound. "I can't stop thinking about what would have happened if we had stayed down there burned, and you don't seem to understand."
But I did understand, so much so that the following week I couldn't fight a fire. I had to keep my distance and stay away. I never got fully involved again. If it had to be put out, let it be put out on its own. That didn't mean I was going to cry. I had to remain active to not admit that my life had almost disappeared.
"So, gentlemen, whose fault was it?" the director said, looking at all of us. "You two were close to death and say nothing."
Honestly, I wanted to say everything, but I kept quiet. Sometimes it's better not to say anything. The blame burned with the fire; the blame stayed pretty burnt there. I also didn't want to say anything because I was just like everyone else, tired and defeated, with my mind on my bed, wishing that hellish week would end.
Cover and Banner made in Canva; Image generated by Canva's AI, Separators made in photoshop
