Firefighters are confident they will have the fire under control in Baix Ebre this afternoon.

BarcelonaFirefighting efforts at the Paüls fire in the Baix Ebre region have continued unabated for the third night since it started. The Generalitat (Catalan regional government) firefighters are confident they will be able to control the blaze this afternoon after 90% of the blaze—which has affected an area of more than 3,300 hectares—was declared stabilized on Wednesday. Furthermore, the rain that fell in the area throughout the night helped to soak the ground. The amounts of rain were not very significant, in the form of showers and thunderstorms, according to Xavi Segura, but their emergence, along with the drop in temperature, has been good news for the firefighters.

"In the afternoon, we will begin to assess whether we consider the fire under control," said the head of the firefighter's intervention, Mar Gil, in a press conference. In fact, the fire department is now reviewing the fire perimeter, and Gil explained that two blazes have appeared in areas that were already burned and under control. One is on a cliff in Paüls that is difficult to access, forcing firefighters to continue working both with water cannons and manually. "These are the areas we are most attentive to," the official admitted.

The scene of this ferocious fire, which spread rapidly on Monday afternoon driven by the strong mistral wind, finally turned around yesterday morning when firefighters managed to stabilize the flames. This allowed the lifting of most of the lockdowns affecting 18,000 residents of several towns. The last to regain mobility were the residents of Paüls, the town where the fire started, who received the all-clear to deconfine themselves towards Wednesday night.

The weather conditions and the work carried out throughout the night to secure the perimeter and prevent the flames from renewing in the hottest areas give firefighters confidence that they can consider the blaze under control in the coming hours. Gil explained that firefighters will be removing vehicles in the coming hours, but for now, 46 vehicles are still working: 26 water vehicles, 3 aerial vehicles, and two fire engines. Regarding the weather, the response chief welcomed the favorable conditions for extinguishing the fire: "The offshore wind will increase to over 15 km/h, but it shouldn't be a cause for alarm," she concluded.

The neighbors, once released from confinement, were able to go out on Wednesday check the fire damage on the ground and in their farmhouses or estates. "We didn't think it would happen, but the house was saved. The fire went through the ravine next door," Núria, one of those affected, explained to ARA

. Statements to journalists, they emphasized that the investigation is very complex, but that they have already managed to delimit the area of between one or two hectares where the fire is believed to have started. "We have determined many things and also ruled out many others," stressed the sub-inspector of the Rural Agents corps, Xavier Gilabert, on Wednesday.