Adolfo López plunged his head and hands into his parents’ swimming pool early on Tuesday afternoon, keen to wash off the soot and dirt he had acquired from the gutted house his mother and father had called home for the past 25 years.
The wildfire that would devour 1,000 hectares of land, consume their house, destroy some neighbouring properties and kill a man trying to rescue horses from a local stables was just a column of smoke when López saw it approaching Soto de Viñuelas at 7.45pm on Monday.
