Fire, smoke, epicness, heroism. A firefighter emerges from the flames in slow motion, surrounded by thick smoke with a person in their arms. This is how a large part of society must imagine what it is like to be a firefighter. Although a part of their work does resemble that, there is a large part of the task and preparation of the firefighters' trade that goes unnoticed and is just as important as the moment of action. The painstaking work, unknown to many people, is part of their day-to-day, and is a basic and indisputable pillar that makes the Fire Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya a global benchmark.

The fires this summer have left a lesson for the continent: climate emergencies are a new reality that we must live with. Just in July, simultaneous fires in France and Spain burned nearly 100,000 hectares and the brutality of the fire put emergency services against the ropes, to the point that they had to ask for help from other European Union states.

They say that being a firefighter is more than just a job. But what does a firefighter do? The first thing that comes to mind is that they are in charge of extinguishing fires. Unfortunately, every summer, the image is recurring. Men and women, under thermal clothing, full-face helmets, reinforced leather boots, work gloves, and safety belts, working tirelessly, are everywhere the fire burns our forests, but their responsibilities go further.

The delegate of the Spanish government in the Valencian Country, Pilar Bernabé, explained today that Seprona has ruled out natural causes such as lightning or similar at the point where the fire began, at the old Venta dels Bous. Although the investigation is just beginning, she stated that the fire was intentionally started, and that it could have been with a cigarette butt or a lighter. The Spanish Government Delegation and the Valencia City Council have coordinated to clarify the facts. The mayoress, María José Catalá, explained that they will soon begin to "upload to the Local Police information that residents have provided".

A fire in the Pujol inlet area, in El Saler, has alerted firefighters, who have had to evacuate Tower 1 of the Aparwaks urbanization as a precaution. Twelve firefighting units have been deployed there, joined by seven resources from the Generalitat, two from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and the UME. In addition, units from the Third Battalion of Intervention in Emergencies have left their base in Bétera to join the extinction missions of the forest fire.

The spokesperson for the PSPV-PSOE in the Corts, José Muñoz, today demanded the resignation of the Minister of Emergencies and Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama, after holding up during his appearance in the Permanent Deputation of the Corts the serious deficiencies that the fire extinction service of the Valencian Community is suffering from. “You are a real public danger as Minister of Emergencies,” Muñoz stated, addressing Valderrama, before directly demanding that he leave office: “Resign and make way for someone else.”

The Civil Guard of Altea and the Local Police of La Nucia, in the demarcation of Alicante, have assisted a woman trapped in a fire in her home. The density of the smoke and the magnitude of the flames prevented the woman from leaving the home, and the officers managed to force the bars of a window, access the interior, and evacuate her while the firefighters arrived.

The forest fire in Tírig, in the Alt Maestrat region, has been controlled by emergency services after four days of intense work and several meetings by the Cecopi, attended by the Minister of Emergencies and Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama; the Government's delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, and the President of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca.

"I wasn't very aware of what it meant to be the first... I took it naturally," acknowledges Miriam Galisteo, the first woman to join the Barcelona Fire Department. It was 2007, and she was 31 years old. "My colleagues had to get used to my presence. It wasn't difficult for me, but for them, a more paternalistic streak emerged, trying to protect me or not seeing me as capable of doing certain things," recalls the firefighter. She also explains that she didn't consider herself a role model until new generations of female firefighters joined and told her she was for them. "There are already 20 or 22 of us girls, but there are still attitudes and comments... In the end, it's like society, it moves slowly," she warns.

The fire of Occitania, the most serious recorded in France since 1949, has become a warning about the challenges posed by large forest fires when they approach urban areas. Now stabilized, the fire has ravaged over 16,000 hectares and has advanced to within just fifteen kilometers of the Occitan city's metropolitan area. This fire, added to the one that a few days ago affected the Community of Madrid and Avila, reinforces a question that is gaining more and more strength in a context of climate emergency: is Catalonia prepared to face a major fire on the outskirts of a city? What changes when the flames leave behind the more distant forest areas and threaten inhabited neighborhoods, essential infrastructure, and thousands of people?

The Consorci de Bombers de València (València Firefighters Consortium) has acted in a housing fire on Andrés Montalva street, in the Valencian town of Alberic, following a notice received at 2:56 AM this morning.

The PSPV-PSOE has reported that the Popular Party's Council left 21% of the budget allocated for hiring forest firefighters unexecuted during 2025, a year in which the staff of the Valencian Society for Integrated Management of Emergency Services (SGISE) only increased by two employees, going from 889 to 891 forest firefighters. This was communicated this Sunday, August 2nd, by the socialist spokesperson for Emergencies in the Corts, Alicia Andújar, who stated that “the problem is no longer just the 14 million cut that the service suffered in 2024, but the Council's inability to execute resources and reinforce an essential operation”.

Marc Castellnou (Tivissa, 1972) is the head of the GRAF of the Generalitat Firefighters. He is considered an international expert on how to tackle fires; especially large fires. And for this reason he moved to Madrid while the largest fire in Spain – at least since records began – continued to burn out of control. After frantic days – he admits he didn't even have time to share impressions with his colleagues – he returned to Catalonia this Wednesday. "The season is not over yet", recalls Castellnou, who is speaking to ARA just after leaving Madrid. With what feelings does he/she return to Catalonia?

High temperatures continue to test firefighters. This Thursday afternoon was marked by the resurgence of the fire in Guimerà, in the Urgell region, which firefighters were able to stabilize again. The fire started burning on Wednesday at a quarter to nine in the evening and firefighters managed to stabilize it, but this afternoon it flared up again and forced the confinement of 21,000 people in total, including the entire city of Tàrrega.

When I returned from the United States and colleagues, future correspondents, came to ask me for advice for the day they could go to work there, I told them – and I tell them – that knowing American history or the political system of checks and balances is all well and good, but that the most important thing is that they be in shape. That they would experience a lot of heat and a lot of cold, that they would be subjected to extreme climatic conditions: scorching temperatures, monstrous snowfalls, and months with frozen sidewalks and without being able to have a coffee on a terrace, tornadoes, gales, that the electricity would go out, meaning the refrigerator and air conditioning. Or the heating… and that, in addition to suffering it, they would have to go and explain it on the front lines. And that if they didn't make themselves physically and mentally strong, it would be very hard for them.Well, this has already arrived here, in Catalonia. You only have to look at the records that are being broken these days:“Barcelona breaks its heat record in 113 years. The Fabra Observatory registers a temperature of 40.9 degrees”. In Vinebre, temperatures exceeded 44 degrees. And we have it for another week.It is not adventurous to think that the usual September downpours may be particularly dangerous this year, taking into account the amount of heat that the land and sea will have stored. All these extreme phenomena have a cost in health, physical and mental, in lifestyles, in leisure, but also, in the functioning of basic services and the maintenance of infrastructure. Increasingly, governments will have to drop everything they are doing to deal with emergencies and, in general, to adapt public spaces and services (streets, natural parks, schools, hospitals, residences) to the new climatic conditions. And us, too.

This initial formula of courtesy is today rhetorical as rarely. How are we? Overwhelmed by the heat, worried about the fires, and fed up with the weather forecasts, which put us on maximum alert for the heatwaves that we will still have to endure in the coming days.The fire in Les Gavarres is not yet out, and more have broken out..In the Anoia region, we had at first thing in the morning the most extensive of those that remain active. The Generalitat Firefighters declared it stabilized this Tuesday morning. This development has allowed almost all confinement orders to be lifted. The firefighters had worked to prevent the fire from crossing the C-15 towards Montserrat. In contrast, the Sentmenat fire remains active, although the head of the Firefighters believes that we have entered a phase of a certain de-escalation.Reinforcements are needed, and the Generalitat has once again called upon the Spanish army unit. And as soon as it was daylight, the air assets returned. The deployment is enormous: 56 ground crews in Sentmenat and about fifty more in Anoia, with the human toll that all this implies, especially when thinking that it is only the beginning of July.The Anoia fire has forced 33,000 people into confinement. Simultaneous fires divide human and material resources, and if they are not stopped, they may even force fire chiefs to decide which fire to prioritize. As we explain on this page, we must consider that, if fires continue to multiply, not all of them can be extinguished.Likewise, the Generalitat Firefighters are very clear: it is impossible to protect all the houses within forests, in developments. And since the principle that human lives come first and then material goods works, what is being done is to evacuate the developments and take people to a safe place, but we will talk about the houses later: it will depend on what can be done based on priorities, wind direction, accessibility, and all other variables. And let's see how Europe is doing:Numerous fires are affecting the south of the continent. Yesterday the fires were mainly located in the Iberian Peninsula, France and Greece, and had already burned 19,000 hectares in total.Yesterday we were talking about solutions, about forest management, about ensuring that farmers do not have to leave their lands, about equipping ourselves with a mosaic landscape of diverse crops that prevents fires from jumping through a continuous mass of vegetation, etc. I hope the parties understand the emergency we live in and are capable of reaching consensus to mobilize budgetary allocations and eliminate bureaucracies. But while this does not happen, there is another reflection to be made, about our individual responsibility. Fires test us as a society, in respecting restrictions, in following recommendations, in studying self-protection measures, in exercising solidarity, and in accepting that our world has changed and selfishness and bad moods will make everything even more difficult. Encouragement to everyone.Good morning.

It was expected to be a complicated week and the fire has not given respite since the first day. When the Generalitat Firefighters have not yet been able to declare the serious fire affecting La Bisbal d'Empordà since Friday under control, there are already three new fires burning simultaneously in the midst of a heatwave. The new fires broke out this afternoon in Sentmenat, in Vallès Occidental; in Artesa de Segre, in La Noguera; and in the region of Anoia, between the towns of Carme and La Pobla de Claramunt. The authorities have confined about 33,000 people from the south of Igualada and various towns in the Anoia region, as well as some urbanizations and scattered settlements between Sentmenat and Castellar del Vallès.

We start the week the same way we spent the weekend: pending the Gavarres fire. There are still people who cannot return home.

Piera, Sant Boi, Capellades, Òrrius, Gisclareny, Barruera... and so on up to fifteen fires of varying intensity across the territory, adding to the wear and tear caused by the fire that has been burning since Friday in Les Gavarres, in Empordà. That's why the Firefighters, who received more than 100 calls, issued a warning for the coming days, as long as the new heatwave that arrived yesterday, Sunday, in Catalonia lasts and is expected to continue until the end of the week. "We are entering a week in which we could have fires with speeds that exceed extinction capacity throughout the country," warned the Firefighters.

A virulent fire has forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people this Thursday in Roussillon, in Northern Catalonia. There are nine minor injuries, including a minor. Most of the affected were staying in three campsites in the town of Canet-en-Roussillon and the beach has also been evacuated, in some cases directly by sea. The flames have crossed the campsites and have incinerated at least 256 bungalows. The fire has also reached the marina area and has burned at least one of the yachts moored there and a catamaran construction company.