米１４歳、山火事避難で運転習得　「本当に怖かった」

【クロービスＡＦＰ＝時事】米カリフォルニア州に住むルベン・ナバレテ君（14）は、背後に山火事の炎が迫り来る中、夜間に狭く急な坂道を下るというとんでもない方法で車の運転を習得した。ミスは許されず、ただ集中し、道の脇にある絶壁と炎は無視しなければならなかった。（写真はルベン・ナバレテ君）
　ルベン君がおじのジョシュア・スミスさんとその妻、ジェイミー・スミスさんと共に暮らす先住民居留地コールドスプリングスランチェリアは現在、山火事「クリーク・ファイア」に見舞われている。
　一家には避難の可能性に備える期間が２日間あり、スミスさん夫婦はこの短期間でルベン君に運転の基礎を教えた。おじのジョシュアさんはルベン君に「テレビゲームと同じだ」と教えたという。
　一家は７日深夜、ついに運命の知らせを受けた。火の手が近づいているため、直ちに避難する必要があった。
　ルベン君のおじ、おば、車いすのきょうだい、年下のいとこ３人が、３台の車に分かれて乗り込んだ。おばのジェイミーさんが運転するＳＵＶが先頭を走り、助手席にきょうだいを乗せたルベン君の車がそれに続き、最後尾はフロントライトが故障したピックアップトラックを運転するおじのジョシュアさんが走った。
　避難先の同州クロービスのホテルでＡＦＰの取材に応じたルベン君は、「僕が運転しなければならないとなったとき、本当に緊張して怖かった」と語った。
　車３台のすぐ後ろには炎が迫っていたが、ルベン君は「とても集中していたので、見たくなかった。事故を起こしたくなかった」と回想。だが窓の外を見ると、「本当に大きくて急な山」があったと語った。計３０キロ余りの移動距離のうち、半分ほどで運転が楽になり始めたという。
　おばのジェイミーさんは、自宅がどうなったかや、置き去りにせざるをえなかった２匹の犬については口にしないよう努めている。ジェイミーさんとジョシュアさんは今も自宅の被害状況を把握できていない。
　ジェイミーさんはルベン君の運転の習得について「短期集中の特訓だった。それまでは家から４分の１マイル（約４００メートル）ほどしか運転したことがなかったんだから」と笑った。
　「全員にとって本当に神経がすり減る経験だった」
　一家は赤十字が用意した同ホテルに１０日間滞在できる。
　通常、避難者らは学校の体育館などで簡易ベットを使い眠るが、新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大防止のため、そうしたことはもはや選択肢にない。
　赤十字はＡＦＰの取材に対し、山火事の避難者らのために民間宿泊施設の１２００室超を確保したと話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/14-11:09）

Fourteen-year-old Ruben Navarrete learned how to drive the hard way -- heading down a steep narrow road at night with giant flames leaping behind him.
No room for mistakes. Just focus, ignore the blaze and the steep cliff on the side of the road.
Ruben lives with his uncle Joshua Smith and his uncle's wife Jamie in the Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians, a Native American reserve threatened by the Creek Fire.
As of late Thursday the Creek Fire had razed 176,000 acres in the hills of the Sierra National Forest in central California, according to Cal Fire officials.
Ruben's family had two days to prepare for a possible evacuation, and in that brief time his aunt and uncle managed to show him some basics of driving.
It's like a video game, Ruben, the teenager recalled his uncle Josh telling him.
The fateful call came Monday at midnight. The flames were approaching -- evacuate immediatly.
Ruben's aunt and uncle, his three younger cousins and his wheelchair-bound brother piled into the family's three cars.
Aunt Jamie led the pack driving the family Kia SUV, followed by Ruben in a Chevrolet with his brother at his side. Uncle Josh took up the rear driving a pickup truck with busted front lights.
When it came down to when I had to drive, I was really nervous, scared, Ruben told AFP, speaking from the safety of a hotel room in the town of Clovis.
The flames were moving right behind the small convoy. I didn't want to look because I was so focused, I didn't want to crash or anything, he said.
But if you looked out the side window there was a really big steep hill, he recalled.
Ruben said that he started feeling comfortable behind the wheel only halfway into the 20-mile trip.
- Abandoned home, pets -
Aunt Jamie tries not to talk about the fate of their home, or what happened to the two dogs they had to leave behind. The Smiths still don't know what, if any, fire damage they will face upon returning.
She set up blankets that she brought from the house on the hotel bed to try to give the room a homelike atmosphere, and congratulated Ruben for a job well done.
It was a crash course because all he had ever driven was about a quarter mile from our home, she said, laughing.
It was really nerve racking for all of us.
The Smiths can stay at the hotel for 10 days, courtesy of the Red Cross.
Normally evacuees are sheltered in places like school gyms and sleep on cots, but during the coronavirus pandemic that is no longer an option due to the possibility of contagion.
More than 1,200 rooms have been prepared for fire evacuees at hotels, a Red Cross official told AFP.
- 'Unbelievable' -
Also fleeing on those hillside roads was Stan Jordan, 68, who was driving a large RV motor home.
Jordan has been on the road since November, when following the death of his wife he decided to fulfill a lifelong dream the couple had of driving across the United States.
As a retired truck driver he had the experience to manoeuver his large vehicle down the narrow back roads to safety.
Nevertheless he was shaken by the panic he saw when people at his campground scrambled to escape the fire.
It was unbelievable. I've never seen flames so tall, he said. Overcome by emotion he paused briefly.
And, you know... it was hard to imagine, he added.
Jordan's original plan was to stay in Shaver Lake, an otherwise bucolic tourist spot in the Sierra National Forest, until October.
Now he and his mobile home will instead head hundreds of miles away to the state of Arizona.