A living hell

LIFE really can change in the blink of an eye. Some Competa residents related what they went through when the catastrophic fire broke out devouring hundreds of hectares of forest and forcing them out of their homes.

“I cannot believe it. This seems to be a nightmare. I cannot believe it is really happening,” Val Bowen told local Spanish newspaper Diario Sur. 

She and her husband, Steve, bought a house in Competa in 2003. “These 11 years have been wonderful. We lived in paradise, in the mountain, surrounded by pine trees,” commented Steve. “But now it has turned to hell,” he added.

Another couple Malcolm and Deborah Bond held each other while they watched the flames approach their home.

“This is terrible. We arrived in 2005 and nothing like this had ever happened before. Well, a fire broke out in 2006 high up in the mountain. But we never imagined the fire could ever approach our home,” said Malcolm.