Adolfo López plunged his head and hands into his parents’ swimming pool early on Tuesday afternoon, keen to wash off the soot and dirt he had acquired from the gutted house his mother and father had called home for the past 25 years.
The wildfire that would devour 1,000 hectares of land, consume their house, destroy some neighbouring properties and kill a man trying to rescue horses from a local stables was just a column of smoke when López saw it approaching Soto de Viñuelas at 7.45pm on Monday.
Then the smoke gave way to fire and the curiosity turned to panic.
The pharmaceutical researcher, who lives in France and had brought his family to visit his parents half an hour north of Madrid, scooped everyone up and headed to a local hotel.
While they were away, the blaze – the apparent fruit of the current heatwave, Soto’s tinder-dry vegetation and winds of more than 70km/h (45mph) – tore through the area and through the nearby suburbs of Tres Cantos, leading authorities to order the evacuation of 180 people.
When they came back to their homes the following day, some residents found burnt-out wrecks.
“At least it’s just the house,” said López. “We’ll just see what happens now but at least everyone is safe and my parents are OK. You can rebuild a house …”
One of his parents’ neighbours had been luckier. The flames had stopped at the perimeter of his house, cremating shrubs and blackening the wire fence but leaving his home remarkably intact.
As the owner went around dousing the still-hot earth with a hose, his father explained what had happened.
“My son just grabbed his dog when it happened and put it in the car and then went to pick up the neighbours and get out,” he said. “I thought the whole house would have burned but it’s just the perimeter.”
The big worry now, he added, was making sure there was enough water: “They say it’s going to be hot and windy this afternoon and the wind could relight the embers under the ash and start the fire again.”
As planes flew through the grey skies high above a nearby British private school that had had a similarly miraculous escape, a local couple paid tribute to the 55-year-old Romanian man who had died when the fire reached the stables.
“He died trying to save horses in the stables, where 26 horses burned to death,” said José Luis Ramírez, a telecoms engineer who lives up the road.
“He was really great and he worked so hard,” said Ramírez’s wife, Brenda. The dead man, who has yet to be named, suffered burns to 98% of his body and died after being flown to hospital by helicopter.
By 1pm, the residents of Soto and Tres Cantos who had spent the night on mattresses in a local leisure centre had packed up and headed home to inspect the aftermath of the blaze.
Jesús Moreno García, the mayor of Tres Cantos, said firefighters had told him they had never seen a blaze like it. “It spread so quickly because of the strong winds,” he told local TV. “We’ve been through something really shocking.”
The air of unreality and the stink of smoke were compounded by the lingering presence of the many fire engines and vehicles from the military emergencies unit that had helped save the well-heeled neighbourhoods.
“It was all just like a dream and today we’re just checking on the damage,” said Ramírez as he and his wife walked down the road between blackened hills.
Some houses in Soto were evidently beyond saving. The roof of one had collapsed to reveal the still-smoking floor plan beneath.
The garden had fared better: despite the ash-grey pool, the skeleton of a trampoline and the piles of soot and twisted, dead shrubs, a hammock still hung between two untouched pine trees.
Around the corner, Adolfo López’s mother came out of her ruined house, said good afternoon and shook her head. “Esto es lo que hay,” she said. This is how things are.
