One of the few places where Madrid’s summer doesn’t feel like a punishment is the San Juan Reservoir and the surrounding areas of the Sierra Oeste, most of which burned down last week. 28,000 hectares have been consumed by the flames, destroying centuries-old pine trees, roe deer, squirrels, reptiles, homes, and businesses—even those right on the water’s edge.
San Juan was 14 square kilometers of sandy beach, a Blue Flag beach (the only one in the Community of Madrid), beach bars, boats, and swimmers—all coming together to form the classic summer postcard scene—which also served as the economic engine of the area and a bastion of biodiversity just 70 km from one of Europe’s largest capitals.
“The peak season for us is summer, when the weather is nice. In winter there are always other activities—mushroom hunting, hiking, mountaineering—but the main business is right now,” explains Carlos Sevillano, owner of Econautica, one of the reservoir’s boat rental facilities, and a local resident. “And what we feel is frustration, sadness, and unease. I’ll never see the surroundings the way they used to be again. I grew up here, and I know it takes 50 years for this to recover. That’s what makes me so angry—so very angry, so furious—because no precautions or preventive measures were taken at all.”
The Future After Spain’s Largest Wildfire
A week later, with the initial danger past, efforts are still underway to assess the damage in a lunar landscape:“Everything around us within a 60-kilometer radius to the west is burned, and within a 30-kilometer radius toward Madrid as well,” to which, of course, the material damage must be added. The fire was driven by strong winds, which helped the embers travel farther; on the boats, there are also chemicals—from the paints coating the hulls—and those particles fly through the air and burn much longer than plant matter.“All it took was for one of those particles to land on a boat’s canvas, and that boat would catch fire. The one next to it, too. Chaos ensued,” Sevillano describes in his conversation with Madrid Secreto.
Despite everything, the team at Econautica had just cleared the surrounding area: “That saved us. We suffered very little damage, partly because Doramas, another of the boat docks, acted as a barrier against the fire.” The Real Club Náutico de Madrid building also survived the fire, although, like El Ancla—one of the reservoir’s best-known businesses—they lost a large portion of their boats.