The Superfast Dorset team is exploring how better mobile connectivity could transform communications for businesses, service providers and individuals. This is just one example of how Spanish mobile coverage – considerably superior to ours – makes a difference there in an emergency.
The fire brigade located and saved our tiny house thanks to great 4G connectivity when Catalunya’s worst wildfire for 20 years raged over the hillside on 26 June 2019. Balls of flames, 10 metres high or more, took out my yurt and turned dozens of our ancient olive trees to ash. Elsewhere on its 6,000 hectare rampage, the inferno destroyed homes and barns. My neighbour lost his flock of 200 sheep, two horses and a donkey.
But my house, at the centre of my farm or finca, was untouched because of the quick actions of the fire brigade. And 4G helped their speedy response.
Multiple agencies were on the ground within hours of the start of the four day disaster: Agents Rurales (countryside rangers), fire brigade, local and military police, ambulance and Red Cross. Helicopters were collecting water in huge buckets from the River Ebro and dumping it on key sites. The fire brigade was beginning to understand that their normal tactics wouldn’t work – this fire was just too big and out of control, the wind was too strong and the ground too uneven to allow access.
I left the house with my friends for what I believed would be the last time, gripping passports and a few belongings and with hot sparks already raining down on us. The countryside ranger who ordered us to drive away immediately said he would do what he could to save the house. When I returned days later, I was astounded to find a distinct line around the house and generator shed where the fire had been stopped dead in its tracks. Only a huge quantity of water could have done that within the time available; he’d been as good as his word.
The agencies increasingly use Telegram, a platform like WhatsApp which depends on mobile connectivity, to supplement radio communication. Telegram allows closed groups of up to 500 professionals working on an emergency to share crucial data such as real-time mapping of the progress of the fire and the location of different teams. It’s a bit more sophisticated than the old approach of relying on the helicopter pilots’ ability to identify fire engines by the numbers painted on their roof, although that can still help too.
The fire is divided into two or more sub-areas and the co-ordinators of each area communicate with the overall control via mobile phones. 4G is ubiquitous in the villages and reasonable out in the campo, or countryside, even though very few people live there. The land is divided into fincas, or farms; the ones round us mostly grow olives and almonds. Down on the plains by the river there are soft fruit orchards and vineyards but until recently there has been no irrigation on the hillside so only the hardiest of plants survive. None of the fincas round us, including the farm with the flock of sheep, horses and donkey, are occupied full time although some within the fire’s 6000 hectare spread are. And even though we are only there a few weeks a year, we can get 4G on the corner of our terrace and a very reliable signal further up the track to the road.
I will never know for certain exactly what saved my house but the most likely scenario is that the countryside ranger who promised me he would do his best took action. Until they have Chinese robotic fire engines, they wouldn’t have risked getting closer to the oncoming fire from the ground; there was no time to call a fire engine or even use equipment to clear the flammable debris around the house to create a fire break, another frequent tactic. Instead they used Telegram to summon a helicopter to dump water on the house from above. 4G mapping would have enabled the helicopter to locate our house from the dozens of ruins which were not saved and dump water to stop the fire in its tracks.
