Firefighters are working to extinguish the first major blaze of the summer, which has caused two deaths.

BarcelonaTwo 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.

This Wednesday morning, the fire area woke up with a cooler atmosphere than yesterday, and high humidity, thanks to the rain that fell last night, which left around 10 l/m². Minimum temperatures have dropped below 20°C, and the wind is calm. A favorable environment for extinguishing the flames during the early hours of the morning.

The heat will return to a marked peak during the central hours of the day, but maximum temperatures will already drop slightly, although they will still hover around 37°C. In fact, the area affected by the flames is no longer on alert for intense heat. As was the case yesterday, showers and strong storms may arrive again this afternoon and evening. Although the possibility of rain is good news, the storms could again be accompanied by strong gusts of wind, an adverse factor in a fire because it causes sudden and erratic changes in wind direction.

Firefighters confirmed yesterday that the two fatalities were two men found in Coscó, in La Noguera: both were traveling in a car and decided to get out. Officers located the lifeless bodies a few meters from the car while carrying out extinguishing work, and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.

The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, confirmed the "saddest and most tragic news" from the command station in Guissona in her appearance announcing the stabilization of the fire. A "very complicated, very difficult" and "unprecedented" fire that, according to the Minister, at times "exceeded the extinguishing capacity" of the Fire Department. The President of the Government, Salvador Illa, offered his condolences to the families of the victims in a message on social media, where he asked the public to exercise extreme caution.

The most developed fire, originating in Torrefeta and Florejacs, has affected 5,000 hectares. In fact, the area affected by this fire has tripled in an hour and a half, to the point that the fire was beyond the extinguishing capacity of the Fire Department for several hours. As for the second fire, which started at midday in Sanaüja, it affected approximately 40 hectares.

At 10:37 p.m., five hours after it started, firefighters managed to stabilize the Torrefeta fire. In their latest communication on Tuesday, the fire department explains that they will continue working "intensively" throughout the night on the two fires still burning in Ponent. The goal is to ensure that this Wednesday, when high temperatures are also expected, the ground is as cool as possible.

Thanks to the favorable progress of the firefighting efforts, at 11:11 p.m. the confinement that had been ordered mid-afternoon in the municipalities of Vilanova de la Aguda, Artesa de Segre, Puentes, Agramunt, Guissona, Cabanabona, Oliola, and Sanaü was lifted.

At around 9:00 p.m., firefighters confirmed that they had regained the capacity to extinguish the fires and that 127 firefighters continue to work on the extinguishing efforts. As for the aerial resources, they were withdrawn once nightfall. There are also farms affected by the fire in Guardiola and Renant, in La Noguera.

At 9:30 p.m., the head of the Fire Department, David Borrell, explained in an initial appearance that they are most concerned about the Torrefeta fire due to its "extremely violent behavior, with a cloud of ash and smoke reaching 19 km in height." However, the Fire Department was already optimistic about the progress of the blaze: "We believe that by tonight we will be able to stabilize and surround it to ensure that there are no flare-ups tomorrow, on a day when high temperatures are also expected," Borrell said. However, he also acknowledged that the situation meant that at times "the safety of the firefighting team was put at risk."

The Minister of the Interior also detailed that "high temperatures and wind" have complicated extinguishing the fire. "However, very important work has been done by the firefighters, but also by farmers who have been mobilized with tractors," the Minister emphasized. Parlon explained that the residents were ordered to stay indoors as a precaution by text message and through the ES-Alert system, due to the rising smoke cloud caused by the fire, which could be harmful to health.

The fire has forced the suspension of vehicle traffic on two roads, the L-313 and the C-14, and the deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, asked the public in an interview with 324 that they avoid travel to the area as much as possible. Meanwhile, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have reported that they have helped evacuate a person with reduced mobility in Vilalta due to the Torrefeta fire.

Regarding the lockdown, the mayor of Guissona, Jaume Ars, explained that "as a precaution, it is expected to last at least until 1:00 a.m.," at which time a new coordination meeting will also be held between mayors, firefighters, and rural police officers to assess the progress of the fires.

The first of the fires started around 2:00 p.m. in Sanaüja, in the Segarra region. Within a few hours, firefighters had managed to stabilize the area, but the wind in the area pushed the flames forward, causing the fire to reignite and become active again. The second fire ignited mid-afternoon in Torrefeta and Florejacs, 20 kilometers from where the first fire had started. Between 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. alone, this second fire grew from 80 hectares to 500 hectares, all of which was agricultural land. In the latest update from the Fire Department, the municipalities with burned areas were Torrefeta and Florejacs (Segarra), Vilanova de l'Aguda (Noguera), Cabanabona (Noguera), Oliola (Noguera), and Agramunt (Urgell).

This afternoon's wind and storms in the area have worsened the two fires. The largest pyrocumulus fire on record

This afternoon's weather conditions in Ponent and the violence of both fires have generated a large column of smoke that has been visible across the Lleida plain. The fire has created a pyrocumulus cloud—a cloud generated by the combination of fire and humidity—at an altitude of 19,000 meters, a phenomenon of magnitude never before seen in Catalonia. Pyrocumulus clouds are created by the extreme temperatures resulting from fires, which quickly evaporate all the water accumulated in vegetation. This causes water vapor to rise rapidly, colliding with cooler air at high altitudes and condensing to form pyrocumulus clouds.

The Torrefeta fire occurred in the midst of a heat wave and another scorching day in which temperatures exceeded 37°C in this town. The showers and thunderstorms that began in the early afternoon in the north of the country also reached the Segarra region. The rain caused the temperature to suddenly drop below 25°C at night, helping firefighters regain control of the two fires still burning in Ponent.