As over 150 fires continue to spread across Galicia, the rumour mongers are having a wonderful time debating who is behind them. It is already widely accepted by the authorities that the majority of the fires are the result of deliberate arson, but who is to blame? National gossip picked up by NFS has it that there are two main potential culprits:
1. Rookie firemen who are furious at having failed exams to work in Galicia just because they didn’t speak Gallego – this was not a requirement last year.
2. A big time ex-football club chairman (whose surname rhymes with Jerez) apparently wanted to build several thousand houses in Galicia but met with fierce resistance from locals. With the land destroyed by fire it is re-classified and becomes legally viable for new construction, plus the terrorised neighbours suddenly loose the will to fight.
And there we were thinking it was just a few crazy pyromaniacs… So is their anything to these rumours? As the saying goes, where there’s smoke…
More photos of the Galicia fires on the BBC…
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 