Fires are common issues in Catalonia, having a climate such ours implies drought and high temperatures. These are dangerous elements that may end up a fire, and not a year passes without any.
And the cause of this problems is obviously the fire, this very curious phenomenon, one of the four elements according to Aristotle. Although it is easy to create and we use it constantly to cook, it keeps being surprising. And normally none of us thinks about it, because we get used to life without comprehending completely our world, only because we cannot: life is a mystery. It is curious how our brain organises our thinking in a way that we do not have to understand the world but know it in terms of what we can do with some object or what does it do, or what can we build with this piece or what is this object made of. The nature of the Cosmos is away from us, just because it exists. And fire is especially a magic element, our world is made of mass, liquid solid or gas, but fire is different, it does not seem similar to the others, it is not the same. Nowadays the science progresses have shown us more spectacular things, but then in prehistory fire should be impressing.
Some people seem to be really impressed by the fire, they provoke fires even though they know the risks of it. It seems that they enjoy looking at the forests burning. But we know how nonsense it is, when a fire has started it may become uncontrollable in few minutes, unfortunately it happens very often in our region, as I said. We call these people “piròmans”, they love fire, they are obsessed with fire and, in my opinion, they have a mental disease.
In some cases, fires are due to a mistake, farmers doing their duties when the weather is very hot or windy and everything gets out of control. Campaigns on tv, radio and other media point to cigarettes thrown out of the windows while driving. They often ask drivers to be responsible and conscious of the risks of their behaviour.
In Catalonia, fire has a good reputation, we are used to using fire in different traditions, for example in June, when we celebrate Saint John’s Night, people make bonfires quite as rituals, and dragons spitting fireworks make their way all along the streets, we call it “correfoc” and it’s a strong tradition in many parts of Catalonia, overall in summer.
So, as I said at the beginning, fire is a curious phenomenon and we admire it, although sometimes it can be very destructive.
SUMMER NEWS BLOG 