"This is where I used to live," she cried. "There's nothing left of it. It's awful. Awful."Around her, crumpled sheet roofs and bars of twisted metal jutted from the ruins of the Pantano del Burguillo camping ground west of Madrid, ravaged by Spain's worst wildfire on record.More than 30 people were evacuated from the site on the shore of the Burguillo reservoir when the flames attacked on Friday, including Vargas, 64, who handled its public relations. They were among scores of thousands of people ordered to leave their homes across the region."This is a house. This was a mobile home," said the site's co-owner Maria Angeles Canete, 54, pointing to the remains of the structures whose plastic walls melted and disappeared in the inferno.Along with her husband Manuel Pascual, 58, she owned this and one other nearby camping ground. Both were destroyed."We lost everything," Canete said, fighting back tears. "We have nothing."Trees lit upWhen the fire approached on Friday, Canete and Pascual fled by boat onto the reservoir."The trees lit up with flames," she recalled. "Then something went bang and we heard the gas canisters exploding."They returned later to find the whole camp burnt to the ground. Stacks of smashed porcelain plates and pots lay in the embers."I don't sleep at night," Canete said. "It's a horrible memory. It's the worst thing that could happen to you in life -- to see your business burning down bit by bit and no one coming to help you."
Spain wildfire burns campsite to ash, leaving tears and despair
Magaly Vargas sobbed as she stared down at the square of grey ash where her caravan once stood.












