No truce in Catalonia after a week of forest fires

BarcelonaThe Generalitat Firefighters have had to make a very great effort this week to respond to hundreds of fires, many of which, moreover, have burned simultaneously. The high temperatures and low humidity have favored the fire making its way easily in different parts of the country, and this has forced hundreds of people to be confined and also to review forest management in recent years. The forecast was that this Saturday there would be a respite in the form of a temperature drop, but it hasn't been enough to prevent new fires that have maintained the pressure of recent days on emergency services ahead of a new heatwave next week. One of them broke out in Mont-roig del Camp and forced the confinement of several housing developments, in addition to closing roads and train lines. The other originated between the Camarasa reservoir and the village of Fontllonga, in La Noguera, where a hundred firefighters were mobilized to extinguish it.

This Saturday morning, the risk of forest fire was extreme in 57 Catalan municipalities. Shortly after midday, the Generalitat Firefighters received notice of a new fire in Mont-roig del Camp, in a forest area near the El Casalot urbanization. As a preventive measure, this urbanization has been confined, as well as Marina, Costa del Zèfir, and some houses near the train tracks in the Miami Platja urbanization. In parallel, traffic has been interrupted on the R16 Rodalies line between Cambrils and Tortosa, as the head of the fire was advancing towards the tracks, and the AP-7 has been closed between Mont-roig del Camp and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant. Two hours later, the extinguishing teams managed to stabilize it and by early afternoon they declared it controlled. In total, about 7 hectares have burned, according to the Rural Agents corps.

Most affected regions

The tranquility of the emergency services, however, has been short-lived, as another forest fire has broken out in Camarasa, in La Noguera, which already affects 21.8 hectares. Civil Protection has sent an ES-Alert to request the confinement of the Fontllonga nucleus, where 14 people are registered. The flames have reached the protected natural space of Aiguabarreig Segre - Noguera Pallaresa and are burning very close to Montsec de Rubies. To tackle it, up to 55 fire crews, 11 of them aerial, and about 160 personnel have been deployed, but so far they have not managed to stabilize it. For this Sunday, Civil Protection has placed 72 municipalities at level 4 of the Alfa Plan, the maximum alert for fire risk, and among the most affected regions are La Noguera, El Pallars Jussà, El Priorat, and El Bages.