Last week was critical, one of the most complicated the Bombers de la Generalitat have experienced, and it has confirmed that it will be a complex summer of fires in Catalonia. All fires start with a spark that can ignite in many ways. By lightning, wiring, a plowing machine, a cigarette butt, or an arsonist who puts flammable liquid in the forest to burn. The reality is that Catalonia, as a Mediterranean territory with a lot of vegetation, has always been prone to fires. According to data from the Agents Rurals accessed by ARA, in the last forty years 14,410 forest fires have been declared — not including agricultural fires — up to July 6, 2026. How many of these were caused by human activity?

About forty people were evacuated early this morning due to a fire that broke out in a building under construction on Aprestadora street, in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The Generalitat Firefighters received the alert at 3:48 a.m. and, upon arrival, found the building with a large accumulation of material and debris.

Inspector David Borrell, head of the Generalitat Firefighters, comments as soon as he picks up the phone that they have just declared a fire in Gavà and that he will be able to talk as long as it doesn't get complicated. It is his routine of the last few days, leading a Firefighter corps that has been facing simultaneous daily fires for a week. The afternoon, again, was very complicated.

The day has been long and complicated, with hundreds of Generalitat firefighters spread throughout the country, with new fires that have further complicated the extinction of the old ones and with accumulated fatigue, but the day has ended with good forecasts. After a new day of simultaneous fires, the Firefighters have managed to bring the first major fire of the year under control, the one in Les Gavarres, which began to burn last Friday and has affected more than 2,000 hectares and about twenty houses. The fire in Anoia, which forced 30,000 people into lockdown on Monday – one urbanization remains under lockdown – and has affected 500 hectares, is also stabilized, as is a fire that broke out this Tuesday at midday in Segarra, which had great potential, could have been very worrying, but which has been contained within 100 hectares. The forecast is to be able to control the fires this Wednesday morning.

The Generalitat Firefighters have long have a web page where all the fires they are working on can be consulted live. This Monday afternoon, no less than fifty simultaneous fires were active. Some stabilized after very tough hours – and little rest for the staff – like the one in Bisbal d'Empordà, and others active and worrying, like the one in Sentmenat or Anoia. The scenario of simultaneous fires is always one that causes firefighters the most anguish, as they face the possibility, however distant it may be, that they may not reach all the fires or may not be able to allocate the necessary resources to all of them.

A column of smoke visible from many points in Barcelonès has set off the alarms of the Generalitat Firefighters, who upon arriving at the initial point of the fire, between Tiana and Montgat, saw that there were three fires lit at the same time. It was 10:45 on Friday morning, and this already made the emergency services suspect that it could be intentional, as they also saw how the fire was ascending at great speed up the ridge. Some witnesses quickly located a man suspected of having set them – they assured that they had seen him starting the fire – a presumed arsonist whom the Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested on the mountain itself. But there was still a lot of work to do, especially because the fire broke out very close to the metropolitan area of Barcelona, the most densely populated area. Around 4:30 PM, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, announced that the fire had been stabilized and, after 5 PM, the Firefighters declared it controlled.

Three people have died this Saturday in a few minutes and in different parts of Catalonia while doing outdoor activities, as reported by the security forces of the Generalitat in a statement. It is an eighteen-year-old boy who drowned while bathing in the Llobregat river, in Berguedà; an elderly man who had done a scuba dive in Cadaqués, and a third person who died after falling down a mountain ravine in the port of Medacorba, in Pallars Sobirà.

Emergency teams have been searching since Wednesday night for a minor under sixteen years old who disappeared at sea in Roses, in Alt Empordà, on a jet ski. They are searching by land, sea, and air in an operation that includes the Bombers de la Generalitat, the Mossos d'Esquadra, Agents Rurals, Salvament Marítim, the Red Cross, and the Guardia Civil, which is in charge of the investigation.

The Generalitat Firefighters have now controlled the fire at a fruit company in Lleida that began on Monday night and which forced the inhabitants of the Vila Montcada-Ciutat Jardí neighborhood, about 1,300 people, to be confined. The fire has burned the facilities of the Arcofrut fruit cooperative, which is next to another fruit cooperative. According to the head of the Lleida Emergency Region, inspector Juan Josep Bellostas, all evacuated people have been able to return to their homes and the deployment of up to 45 crews that was set up on Monday evening is now being scaled down. In total, eight crews will remain, with the command system and a drone team, while awaiting the complete consumption of all fuel.

Joan Liébana was 30 years old and had recently become a firefighter when on June 17, 2021, he died during a fire at an industrial warehouse in Vilanova i la Geltrú. Almost five years later, his colleague and the corporal in charge of the operation have admitted to a crime of less serious negligent homicide, and have accepted a sentence of fines of 4,500 and 5,400 euros. The two defendants admitted that they did not realize the firefighter had not left the warehouse with them until two colleagues who were ventilating the warehouse found him an hour later.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), the Generalitat Fire Department, and residents of Vilanova de Bellpuig are searching for a man who disappeared this Wednesday in the same town in the Pla d'Urgell region. His name is Ramon Carulla Argilés, he is 46 years old, and he lives in Vilanova de Bellpuig. Specifically, Carulla is the builder who was renovating the house. which collapsed on WednesdayThe collapse left four people injured, two of them seriously.

The room is filled with screens. They display footage from cameras along some of the country's major highways, but above all, there are four aerial maps: one of Catalonia, one of the metropolitan area, one of Barcelona, and one of the airport. Various symbols appear, such as blue dots, red zones, and red dots. These represent installed drone detectors, protected airspace zones, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) currently in flight. All of this is located in the central command room of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), at the Egara Central Complex, enabling them to detect everything passing overhead. Often invisible to the naked eye, imperceptible to the ear, drones represent a "new challenge for the security of Catalonia." The head of the Mossos, Josep Maria Estela, explains that until a few years ago, police work focused primarily on the ground. But the emergence of drones, among other devices, has forced them to look to the skies: "We have adapted to this new reality to face threats ranging from the protection of critical infrastructure to large crowds," says the commissioner. To this end, five years ago they launched Project Kuppel, a pioneering plan based on a NATO-approved system, which creates a kind of protective dome over Catalan airspace to detect drones flying over the country and even disable them if they pose a threat—although this is the final stage. "The goal is to have more antennas; they are our eyes on the ground," Estela affirms. Currently, there are several in Barcelona—such as at the Sagrada Família and Camp Nou—and at the airport. Every drone flying near these locations is detected, and its registration, altitude, and the location of the operator can be determined.

The death of a colleague during a performance, an incident with multiple victims, an accident involving children, a very long service, or a serious work-related injury. These are some of the points that appear in the well-known Terrible Ten, an American ranking of the main critical incidents that firefighters can experience. This list is used in Catalonia, and if any of the Generalitat's firefighters experience one of these situations, they must go to the force's own psychological support service. This team is unknown to the general public, but is involved in many emergency operations.

Marc Castellnou, chief inspector of the Forestry Action Reinforcement Group (GRAF) of the Generalitat Fire Brigade, is surely one of the greatest fire experts in Catalonia and the world. He is attending to the ARA at the 112 center in Reus, after a July with many and increasingly violent fires and before an August that is also expected to be complicated.

More than seventy personnel, with six air units and 19 ground units, have been working in Sant Pere Sallavinera (Anoia) to extinguish the fourth active fire this afternoon in Catalonia. The fire has burned approximately 130 hectares and was stabilized at 9:30 p.m. The flames began burning cereal crops, but are also affecting many forest areas. There are some isolated farmhouses in the area, and due to their proximity to the fire, the emergency services have recommended the containment of these properties, which are located between Sant Pere Sallavinera, Aguilar de Segarra, and Fonollosa. Once the fire was stabilized, the containment has been lifted.

Two simultaneous fires have been affecting the regions of Segarra, Noguera, and Urgell since Tuesday afternoon. According to firefighters, the fires have caused the deaths of two people. They have also forced residents of nine municipalities with a total of more than 20,000 inhabitants to remain under lockdown. The Generalitat (Catalan Government) firefighters managed to stabilize the fires well into the night, allowing the nine towns to be released from lockdown.

Another complicated day for the firefighters, with several fires raging simultaneously and in different locations. While they were trying to extinguish the resurgence of the blaze that devastated 472 hectares in Segarra on Saturday, two more fires broke out, one in Noguera, and the Solsonès residents are being evacuated by helicopters.

The Generalitat's Civil Protection Department has sent a mobile alert to residents of Cervera and Granyena de la Segarra using the EsAlert system, ordering them to self-isolate due to the forest fire raging this Saturday in the Segarra region. Confinement has also been ordered in the municipalities of Granyanella, Fonolleres, and La Curullada. According to initial investigations, the fire started in a vehicle in Granyena de la Segarra and spread to the surrounding fields. It also affected a small portion of the forest. The flames have affected approximately 347 hectares of land, according to the initial estimate by the Agents Rurals (Rural Agents), and have forced the complete closure of the A-2 between Cervera and Tàrrega.

The Catalan police (Mossos d'Esquadra) and the Catalan Fire Brigade are searching the Tossa de Mar area of La Selva for a 24-year-old British man who disappeared in the United Kingdom on April 30, 22 days ago. According to police sources, the Catalan police received a request from Interpol reporting that the young man could be on the Costa Brava, specifically between Tossa de Mar and Sant Feliu de Guíxols. His parents detected that his cell phone was located in that area.

With the blackout The power cuts arrived. Service coverage vanished. Thousands of people were trapped, especially on trains and in elevators. Traffic lights went dark, with the risk of a collision at any intersection. And at Fire Brigade headquarters, fear quickly began to emerge: "The question was: 'Are people calling us? Are calls coming in to 112?'" says David Borrell, Chief Inspector of the Generalitat Fire Brigade. He admits that "certainly" some calls didn't come in, but they have no evidence of any risky situations being missed. The Deputy Director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, agrees, stating that a widespread inability to contact the emergency line was not detected.