Natalia and Santi, horse transporters, have rescued around fifty animals in the wildfires of the Community of Madrid. Their van was trapped by flames on the road from Zarzalejo to Valdemorillo.
The sky turned red and the smoke barely allowed visibility on the road. Natalia and Santi, a couple of horse transporters, experienced moments of true terror as the fire surrounded them while they tried to rescue six horses from the Valdemorillo area. "The fire is consuming us! We can't go on!" Natalia recounted, in tears, as they attempted to navigate through the flames.
Neither of them is part of an official operation. They are the owners of Transportes de Caballos Santiago Revuelta, a company that, since the fires began, has become an improvised and free rescue network. "We started offering voluntary help to anyone who needed it. Horses, sheep, pigs... whatever was necessary," Natalia explains.
Their phone has not stopped ringing. They have received dozens of pleas for help from desperate owners. One of the calls that affected them the most was from a neighbour in El Tiemblo, who begged them to rescue his horse from a private estate. "He told us: 'Please, get my horse out of here.'" They did everything possible to send a trailer, but it was already too late. "Two minutes later, he called us back crying to say he could do nothing, that he had been evacuated and had to leave the horse there," she recounts sadly. "That is one of many horses that have been left behind," she laments.
In just a few hours, the couple evacuated eight horses from Chapinería to a farm in Fresnedillas, whose owners offered to take them in. They also coordinated dozens of transports with other volunteers. They estimate that, together, they have saved around fifty horses. "We haven't transported all of them ourselves, but we have had a lot of people behind us moving animals to different locations," Natalia points out.
The hardest part, she admits, has not been loading the horses or driving for hours, but having to say no. "More people have called me, and I've had to tell them we couldn't get any closer. The sky is red, everything is filled with smoke... It’s heartbreaking to say we can't help more. We just can't," she says, distressed.
Furthermore, she denounces that some owners from municipalities far from danger are preemptively moving their horses to stables in Madrid, occupying spaces that could be needed for animals that are surrounded by fire. "It's not fair that people who are far from the fire are moving horses to Madrid when those spaces are needed for the horses that are burning here," she laments. "Please, don’t occupy those stables that could be used by horses that truly need them," she urges.
At another critical point, in Aldea del Fresno, where the fire jumped from Toledo, the Yeguada Agrado estate, considered a temple for thoroughbreds, faces the flames head-on. Miguel Redondo, its owner, states that the situation is "quite dramatic." He is keeping an eye on the wind, the greatest enemy. They have drawn up their own emergency plan due to the impossibility of evacuating over 50 animals. "These are animals adapted for horse racing that compete at tracks like La Zarzuela or San Sebastián. They are not easy to handle," he emphasizes. For now, the animals are calm in the meadows. "We have the irrigation and pumping systems running all day and night to cool the environment and combat the smoke."
A team of five people, including Miguel's son, monitors the fire's evolution 24 hours a day. "Evacuating 50 horses is almost impossible. You would need between 10 and 15 trucks, and you can't mix stallions with mares or two-month-old foals," he explains. In case of tragedy, the protocol is clear: "Release the animals in the meadows, leave the irrigation on, and evacuate ourselves." He hopes the wind's lull continues and that it won't be necessary.
Meanwhile, Natalia and Santi continue to travel the mountain roads, hoping to save more lives. "There are still horses that need help," Natalia says before hanging up. "And we will keep going until we can’t anymore."
