Monument to the Fires of Laroya

The Fires of Laroya are a series of events that, according to eyewitnesses, took place in Laroya, Almería (Spain), in the summer of 1945, and which remain unexplained to this day.

Background

They began on 16 June 1945, when, for no apparent reason, piles of wheat began to burn, and at the same time, in another part of the village, flames engulfed a young girl. Fortunately, the presence of local workers prevented her from being burned. After reporting the incident to the authorities, a group from the Civil Guard travelled to the village, but were unable to explain the spontaneous and random fires.

Experts from all over Spain arrived in the village, including an expert from the Almería Seismological Institute. For his part, the director of the National Institute of Geophysics stated that the phenomena in the village of Laroya were related to the so-called St. Elmo’s fire. According to the newspaper ABC, the Inspector of Primary Education in Almería stated that the phenomenon was:

…due to the ignition by heat of substances known as pyrophorics, such as fine coal dust, flour and piles of oil-stained rags.

During that summer, fields, farmers’ belongings and so on caught fire for no apparent reason. Even in early July, the phenomena were still occurring. The ABC newspaper of 7 July reported:

New cases of spontaneous fires have occurred in some farmhouses in the village of Laroya. The flames are greenish-red and of low intensity, so they are easily extinguished. It has been observed that when bundles of burning barley are thrown onto a pile, the fire intensifies, just as happens with petrol fires. It is believed that vapours producing the fire emerge from the ground. However, a fire outbreak has been recorded in a closed, interior room, making the phenomenon inexplicable. In the Estella district of that municipality, three fire outbreaks occurred at the same time on the roof of a building.

On 30 June 1945, experts from various fields produced a report in which they stated:

The events were not caused by volcanic activity, nor by geological disturbances that may have led to the release of combustible materials other than flammable gases. The origin of the fires is not to be found in internal phenomena or on the surface of the ground. Nor can the cause be attributed to electrical phenomena, the ionisation of the atmosphere, or the thermal effects of solar radiation. In short, there is no definite cause to which all the events that occurred can be attributed, and any suspicion that they were caused by human intervention must be ruled out from the outset.

The incidents ceased after the summer. The report was published in 1946 under the title ‘The Laroya Phenomena’. A memorial dedicated to ‘The Fires of Laroya’ has since been erected.

Source: Wikipedia.org