disaster
Foreign residents on the outskirts of Marbella talk about how they were woken in the middle of the night by the fire
06.09.12 - 11:22 -
The scene the day after, when the fire was under control. Salvador Salas
As the fires raced through the countryside last week many foreign residents in areas just outside Marbella such as Ojén were woken by the smoke in the early hours of the morning.
SUR in English spoke to a few Brits who suddenly found themselves caught up in one of the largest fires to hit this part of the Costa del Sol in living memory.
Emma Booker
"I've never wanted to get out of anywhere so quickly"
Following the start of the fires last Thursday the entire village of Ojén, with a population of 3,300, was evacuated.
Among them was English mum of one Emma Smith, 36, who works as a receptionist in Marbella.
She told SUR in English: "I woke up at 3.30 a.m because I could smell smoke and when I looked outside our bedroom window it looked like a volcano was erupting.
"The whole mountainside was red and it looked like flowing lava. I looked over the balcony and there were lots of people getting in their cars and running around on the streets panicking.
Evacuation
"A few minutes later the police arrived and told everyone to evacuate. The heat and the smoke coming off it was incredible. It was terrifying.
"I've never wanted to get out of anywhere so quickly. My husband and I woke our five year old daughter up, put some food down for the cats and left the house without grabbing anything.
"We jumped in a car and it took us an hour to get out of the village when it normally takes six minutes. The traffic was incredible. We saw people on bikes and even a man on a horse leading another horse away by rope.
"We got down to Marbella at 5 a.m and parked in the centre for a couple of hours while our daughter slept on the back seat.
"Then we found a café and sat watching the Spanish news for a few hours to see what was happening. We tried to drive back up in the morning but were turned away by the police so we went to stay with my mother until it was safe to return."
Anne Ambler
"That's when we started seeing the red hot ash dropping into our garden"
Anne, 57, originally from Durham, England, was sleeping in her home in El Rosario when she was woken by the smoke from the fire in the early hours of Friday.
The supervisor at Iceland, Puerto Banús, said: "I woke up at 1.30 a.m and smelt the smoke straight away as I rarely shut our bedroom window. I expected to find a fire in the house but when I didn't I went to the garden and the fire appeared to be right behind our neighbour's house.
Fierce
"It was so fierce. I started panicking so I went and woke up my husband. That's when we started seeing the red hot ash dropping into our garden. At that stage my neighbour said she was leaving and I said I would come with her. Just as we were leaving the police started arriving and told everyone to start evacuating. As I left I saw sparks and a big fireball behind my neighbour's house.
Fireball
"My husband decided to stay and started hosing the garden down. I tried to stop him but he said if it got too bad he would leg it. There were hundreds evacuating but a few of us ended up in the car park of Iceland in Puerto Banús at 6.30 a.m as I knew there was a burger van there and we could get something to eat.
"When we returned the next day the house was fine but there was a lot of ash everywhere. But that's nothing to what a lot of people have put up with. We've been very lucky as it came so close.
"I wasn't that frightened at the time. It was more the next day when we returned and saw the devastation that I realised how serious it had been."
Steve and Elaine Strong
"It really shook me up"
For Marbella teacher Elaine Strong it was not her typical school run last Friday morning.
After a sleepless night watching the fires from her home in Guaro with her husband, she decided to drive to the British School of Marbella where she works as a Nursery teacher.
With most roads closed she had to drive to Malaga in order to get on to the AP7 toll road into Marbella.
But at around 10 a.m, shortly after passing Calahonda she suddenly found herself surrounded by flames on all sides.
Elaine, a mum of two, said: "I had only just got through the toll road with four other cars when the flames came up either side of us at the side of the road. It was terrifying. We seemed to be the last ones to have been let through as I saw no one behind us after that. I kept on driving through the smoke but it really shook me up."
Back at their home Steve, 41, an IT worker who works in Marbella, was keeping an eye on the direction the flames were taking.
"I first found out about the fires the night before when I saw a friend had posted some photos on Facebook," he said.
"We went outside to have a look and saw a red glow in the clouds. We spent several hours checking Facebook until it became clear at around 3 a.m that we were fine.
"At 12 p.m on Friday I decided to pack the car with photos and toys for the girls as the speed we had seen the fire travel was worrying, especially if the wind suddenly picked up. But by late afternoon it had slowed down and we realised the worst was over."
Steve went on to join a volunteer group he came across via a Facebook group called SOS Volunteers Andalucía. On Saturday he joined dozens of international volunteers on four hour shifts at Barranco Blanco to help make fire breaks.
