While scores of people were fleeing Spain’s raging wildfires, the staff at Safari Madrid had others to think about.
From birds, to reptiles, to large cats – all were in the path of danger and in need of saving.
As the flames swept closer to the safari park, teams of caretakers stayed behind to tend to the animals, herding them into airconditioned indoor concrete enclosures they hoped would keep them out of the fire’s reach. And as the sky turned orange and the air filled with thick gray plumes of smoke, they hosed down the surrounding areas to keep the flames at bay.
When the wildfires that raged west of Madrid last week scorched their way through 131 square miles of land, Safari Madrid was just one of the bastions that emerged in a regionwide effort to save countless animals from farms and sanctuaries threatened by the blaze.
In San Martin de Valdeiglesias, about 70km (43 miles) west of Madrid, a bullring was converted into a makeshift shelter for horses and ponies, donkeys and goats, cats and dogs, according to Mayor Aránzazu Povedano Fraguela.
