The residents of Colera (Girona), a town that was surrounded yesterday by the fire that originated in Portbou, have recounted the anguish and fear they experienced last night and at dawn, because, as a neighbor, “you could see some flames that seemed to end the world.
This is how Anabel Villa described it, who explained that at home they had a “quite bad time, with anguish”, especially “the grandparents, who were very scared because their house was next to the fire.”
“My son has been putting out the fire and he sent me photos. It has all been brutal, I have come to cry,” added this neighbor, who has reported that they have not been able to sleep at home all night.
Ramon Nogueras also spent a night of tension, who saw how the garden of his house was burned and how the fire reached the very wall of the house, because “even the door mat has been burned.”
“The house has been saved almost by a miracle”, said this neighbor, who confesses that during those hours “we have suffered a lot and now we are exhausted, after a whole night dancing”.
Since seven in the morning they have already been able to return home, although today “we are still confined to the town”, although convoys have been organized so that people who do not reside in the municipality and who have been trapped since yesterday by the afternoon they can leave town.
Jean Pierre, a French citizen residing in Toulouse who owns a house in Colera, has recounted that “the fire was not very far, about 100 meters from our house”, so he and his family spent the night in a pavilion in the town, although They have not been able to sleep, and have returned to their home at 7 in the morning.
He has praised the organization that there has been in those moments of danger by the city council and the Fire Department, which has meant that “we have been a little afraid, but not much”.
The mayor of Colera, Lluís Bosch, has indicated, for his part, that the fire “started around five in the afternoon in Portbou and due to the strong north wind it evolved rapidly in the direction of Colera and all the emergency mechanisms were activated”.
“All the residents were confined to their homes, from here the fire spread very quickly until we began to evict some residents in the Garbet area and later more than 150 residents took refuge in the municipal pavilion of Cholera until after 7 in the morning, when the danger passed,” said the mayor.
“Now in Colera there is absolute tranquility, although the firefighters are soaking some points on the mountain that are still burning,” Bosch specified.
