English description of this site and background

Paloma de Montemayor, mother of two boys aged 8 and 10 (who have not yet been able to resume school, not having a place to live), decided not to take the incompetence of the authorities sitting down and on October 1 st set out to walk around the island in protest against the slow distribution of financial help and the bureaucratic red tape that the victims are subject to in order to obtain aide. Visiting all the areas destroyed by the fires, she also collected other victims' stories in a blog (see address below) and now has opened a personal one on this site. Arriving back at her starting point, the city of Las Palmas, on October 15th, Paloma set up a tent outside the Presidential Building of the Canarian Government, where she has now spent over 45 days and nights, awaiting some kind of reaction from the Government, but to date has been totally ignored.

Other families in the same situation are also still awaiting help to pay for rented lodging while their homes are rebuilt. The Government has been trying to focus on the considerable environmental damage and give the impression that the people displaced from their properties by the fires are all taken care of and satisfied with the treatment they have received.

This, however, is not the case and several families are still staying with family and friends because they cannot afford to rent their own accommodations and they have not been given official reassurance that the payment will be covered by the authorities until reimbursement and reconstruction has been completed. The inhabitants of the areas affected by the fire are enraged at the way the entire matter has been handled, starting with the official neglect that permitted the fired to rage almost unimpeded for 3 days until it was totally out of control and able to reach populated rural areas. Fire-fighters were told to wait until being given orders before acting and thus the fire reached areas that would not have been affected had steps been taken earlier to prevent it.
To see Paloma's and other victims' stories (and photographs), please visit: http://www.moganblogplaza.blogspot.com/ (Spanish only) and http://www.masnunca.org/ (Spanish only)
Contact Paloma by phone on +0034 606 812 541 (Spanish and English)