I WAS still not confident that the English speaker, despite speaking very good English, had fully grasped the situation of our fire.
If her local knowledge, or even her possession of a map or sat-nav, had been as good, then by now our burgeoning fire would be succumbing to the ministrations of those qualified to extinguish it.
ºNevertheless, I had done my best. The fire was not threatening any houses, so panic was not necessary. The mobile tweebled.
‘This is Marie-Luise.’ She said in Spanish. Oh! Wonderful! Marie-Luise is the slender and very competent representative of the Law in Arboleas.
There must be things she doesn’t know, but the location of Limaria is not one of them. ‘You have a fire in the campo.
Where is it?’
By now I knew this better than the Ten Commandments. I explained the situation.
Although this had been completely incomprehensible to the English speaker, it made instant sense to Marie-Luise.
‘I will call the Bomberos.’ I relaxed. The baton of responsibility had been passed to someone competent to carry it.
The mobile tweebled again. ‘Hola. This is the Bomberos. Where is the fire?’
Oh no – not again! I explained.
‘Can we get to it by road?’ Now that was a sensible question.
‘Yes.’ End of conversation, shortly followed by a fire truck.
The fire was in the mountain of dumped garden rubbish, and probably caused by smouldering fire ash.
Had the wind been in a different direction it could have destroyed several houses. Arboleas has a magnificent Punto Limpio, which takes garden rubbish.
Please use it!
