The dilemmas of fire

The most effective tools for explaining the fires that continue to ravage Spain are data and testimonies. The data—hectares burned, forest rangers, firefighters, soldiers, and resources mobilized—express the impossibility of meeting all needs and the helplessness of not reaching everyone. The testimonies convey the anguish of residents in the affected areas, who are struggling to avoid losing everything.

At the same time, and from an underworld amplified by media complicity, there is what the Catalan media call political " picabaralla ." The word is well chosen, because "picabaralla" means "heated dispute" but also frivolous and impertinent conversation. To political frivolity and impertinence, we could add the immorality that defines a reality more media-driven than real, ridiculed by the gravity of the facts.

Two testimonies from neighbors that were repeated yesterday, like a litany, in the Catalunya Información news feeds. In the first, a neighbor explained that he didn't intend to heed the evacuation order because, watching TV, "I've seen that the towns where people leave are all burning." In the second, a neighbor stated, "No one is coming here" and that under these circumstances, she felt she had to stay to defend her home and fight the fire. The tone of the testimonies wasn't one of dismay but rather of pride and indignation. Contrary to the aseptic nature of the press releases, it is a tone that confronts us with a very difficult dilemma. What would we do if we saw the authorities ordering us to evacuate our homes and, at the same time, we realized that aid hadn't arrived?

To frivolity and political impertinence we should add immorality

When we don't experience catastrophes like these, we even allow ourselves the luxury of asking ourselves—some questionnaires still include this question—what we would take with us if our house caught fire. The painter Alberto Giacometti is credited with this response: "In a fire, between a Rembrandt and a cat, I would save the cat."

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Now, through the irrefutable spontaneity of these victims, we discover the true dimension of the dilemma: it's not a question of saving a Rembrandt or a cat, but of staying, with the risks that entails, or of leaving and obeying the evacuation orders issued by overwhelmed and absent authorities.