San Francisco Frontiers - With minutes to flee, Spain fire evacuees grab what they can

"Everyone had to get out of the village quickly -- it was a critical situation and people were scared," Olga Congacha, 50, told AFP on a highway where police had closed off access to her home commune, Robledo de Chavela.

"My husband and I left with all that we could grab -- our important documents and some clothes."

Officers let her return briefly to her home Sunday to get medicine that she needed ahead of an operation.

She found her house covered in ash.

The wildfires in central Spain have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares of land. Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen said Sunday one near Madrid was the biggest in the country's recent history.

- Family keepsakes -

Roberto Velasco, 84, brought a small suitcase and a hard disc containing copies of old family letters and keepsakes from his family in Chile over the 50 years he has spent in Spain.

"I didn't know what to bring. I thought the whole house was going to burn," he told AFP at an improvised evacuation centre in a sports hall north of Madrid after being bussed from his village, Navalagamella.

"At first I thought I would take some music and books," he said, sitting wearily on a camp bed in a dirty grey T-shirt.

"But I only brought the hard drive and some clothes. I didn't bring a towel."

- Pet canary -

At another refuge in Villamanta, west of Madrid, Jose Luis, 81, looked at his phone screen.

On it, smart cameras installed around his home relayed images of his house, now under clear blue skies, with the hosepipe in the yard unravelled where he left it.

He and his wife fled in minutes when their phones rang with the evacuation alert, and left their village Aldea del Fresno with virtually nothing.

Later, police let them return to their house for half an hour to retrieve their medicine.

His wife took the chance to leave double food rations for their canary, Pavarotti.

"He has the voice of an angel," said Jose Luis.

"When you put music on for him he won't stop singing -- bachata, rock 'n' roll, anything noisy."

During the brief return, Jose Luis watered the plants and grabbed his electric razor.

Like other evacuees, he asked not to have his full name mentioned as he did not want to be publicly identified in his vulnerable situation.

- Feral cats -

Rosa, 56, refused to leave behind her two rescue cats in Robledo de Chavela.

"They are feral -- you can't pick them up without a net," she said.

"I called the animal protection people but they weren't allowed to enter the village."

Eventually, police forced her to evacuate her house. She was one of the last to leave the village as flames reached it.

"They kind of tricked me, saying they were going to get the cats out, so I said OK. But of course, they had no intention of getting the cats out. They came for me," she said.

"The cats are alright -- they are in the house and have things to eat. I left it all for them. The only thing is that the floor will be dirty."

- Dirty T-shirt -

Resting in the sports hall in Villamanta, Margarita, 70, pointed to the stains on her T-shirt -- the same one she had been wearing for four days.

She nursed a swollen ankle after falling in the evacuation centre.

She and her daughter Helena, 45, said they were being well looked after, eating properly and being given paracetamol when they needed it.

Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia came to visit them and the other evacuees from Aldea del Fresno there on Sunday.

"The queen came to say hello to us -- and I was wearing this dirty thing," said Margarita.

Helena explained: "We came with just the clothes on our backs. We thought we would be going home the next day."

C.Diaz--SFF