Simón Lewis arrived in Argentina in the early ’70s and settled in Patagonia in 1973. His passion for nature conservation and the environment led to him becoming one of the first forest firefighters in the area. When the alarm was raised, he leapt into his truck and, alongside other colleagues, fought fires with whatever tools they had to hand.
He worked in the Wildlife Authority (Fauna) of the Province of Neuquén and ended up as Head of the Southern Zone. This role brought him into contact with colleagues in the United States and Canda, where he travelled to take up various opportunities to gather material and useful knowledge he applied to life in Argentina. He created the Provincial System for Fire Management in Neuquén, forming and training Brigades. He brought the FWI system from Canada, an index based on meteorological observations to estimate forest fire risk at a national level. He noted down all the data he recorded in his spreadsheets, to later digitalise and feed into more sophisticated systems which are still used today.
On International Forest Firefighters Day, here at the Fundación Tierras Patagónicas we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to pay tribute to Simón through the words of one of his children, his friends and his colleagues. We applaud Simón Lewis, a forerunner in fire fighting, and to all of those who put themselves at risk day in day out to preserve and protect our natural environment.