11th  August  2017

It is a very hot day with a very strong wind that keeps on changing direction. Now I can say it , the perfect one to lit a fire. We are relaxing when in the early afternoon the home bell rings. It’s my neighbor. She upset and tells me to go out immediately. It seems my garden is burning.

“Is my garden burning?!”
Impossible….
I exit to pander her, convinced to show her she is wrong but I notice that..my garden is really burning!
Someone has lit the fire in the wood surrounding my house.  Not only, the strong with that changes direction makes the flames spread wherever at an incredible speed.
All that happens in the following 30 minutes can’ t be described.
I am paralyzed. I need some seconds to connect the plug and rely on the mobile. I call my husband first” “ Come and help me!” and my sister” Don’t absolutely take children here at home.!!
I am in a soap ball, surrounded by the fire.

The flames are huge. They squirm, they go over the highest trees and reach my neighbor’s house. They attack his shed of tools, the one where he keeps the gas tank. In a few moments the disaster occurs. Neither the time to see that a very high black cloud colors the sky and the flames grow stronger.
I assure you to that in front of such a scene , we really realize how much we are powerless against the force of nature. Luckily in these situations the best of people comes out. No! I don’t refer to the thugs who lit the fire, obviously , but to all the neighbors who reach me taking buckets, pumps, hydrants and all that is useful to try and limit the fire. Serena and Cristina run to help me with the dogs  who, frightened, don’t want to move.

Yes, the dogs! Orso, the labrador in color honey, is paralyzed by fear, he doesn’t want to move and we are obliged to drag him by the strangle collar  Just when we got out from the gate the wind changes direction again and the flames wrap him “ caressing” him on the his back.
In the meanwhile the firemen arrive and also my father who, with the neighbors’ helps, takes the dogs away from the dangerous zone with a van. After taking them in a safe place, they are comforted and quenched with bowls of water.
The Labrador are safe even if, unfortunately, during the mess, Orso hurts his paw and there is blood allover.
The Dachshund Chanel instead is still at home.
I run inside. The firemen don’t agree, but let alone I leave her home! Once found, I grab her and take her out too.

 

vigili del fuoco con cisterna incendio       bosco in fiamme incendio

 

A though goes through my mind like a light: the cats!
I realize they have escaped and can’t find them anywhere.
I am desperate and disoriented, the smoke makes my head turn.
The firemen ask to take the cars away, in order to avoid further explosions. Serena, Cristina and I displace them and take the dogs to my mum’s home where Rita, my sister, is awaiting them to drive to Margherita and Silvia’s dog park La Torretta, where they rest for almost one month.
Why do I name all these people? Because they are all fantastic, wonderful human beings who have helped me when I needed without backing up.

Thanks to them the dogs are safe. In less than 30 minutes we have organized a relay to place them at the dog park, where the girls have welcomed them though the structure was full for the summer holidays. They have also taken care of Orso, they have brought him to the veterinary’s and given him all necessary cares to avoid infection and heal the burning on the neck and the wound on the paw.
Children are safe and they haven’t seen anything, thanks God.
I go back home where my husband and my dad, equipped with a tractor with a water tank, are helping the firemen to keep the rest of the wood wet to avoid the situation worsens. From three until nine p.m. 5 aircrafts come and go continuously to limit the fire but a very long week ha sto pass before the situation is completely under control.  In the wood around home, there were wild boars, hedgehogs, squirrels, hares and even 3 wolves and they are all disappeared, full of fear.
A true catastrophe. The landscape is no more the same, there are no more tress and another 20 years have to pass before the wood becomes so splendid as it was before the fire.
After about ten days also the cats have come back sane and safe: they have hidden themselves for sure, waiting that all was normal again.

I am telling you this l this story, because thanks to my pets I have known many really special people, simple hearted, pet lovers like me and maybe more and I take the occasion to thank them once again to have taken care of my puppies and for their precious help, without which, probably, I couldn’t taken all way in safety.