Why does a good grain season fuel summer fires?
In one month, 1,059 fires were recorded, 217 of which were on agricultural land.
BarcelonaThe winter and spring rains have been a double-edged sword. Although they favored the growth of crops such as cereals, the high temperatures in June have turned these fields into flammable areas. This is how David Borrell, head of the Generalitat's Fire Department, explained to ARA, stating that Catalonia is under threat of "very violent" agricultural fires. The most recent cases are those on Tuesday in Sanaüja and Torrefeta and Florejacs (La Segarra), which were declared under control on Wednesday night, but ended with two fatalities and more than 5,500 hectares burned.
According to data provided by the Fire Department, agricultural vegetation fires account for 53% of the fires recorded in the wild during the month of June, with 271; figures that are well above those catalogued during the same period in 2024 (131). Taking into account urban vegetation fires, 1,059 fires have been detected in one month, more than double the number of last year. For this reason, farmers are demanding greater control over the variety of plantations in agricultural areas.
"Here in Segarra, most of the crops are cereals, which are very vulnerable to fires. There are not enough vineyards, olive trees..." laments Josep Maria Gras. He is a farmer and a member of the Secretariat of Federations and Groups for the Defense of Forests of Catalonia (ADF), the organization of volunteers organized to fight fires in rural areas and support firefighters. In fact, on Tuesday they had to intervene in the two fires in Ponent.
Furthermore, there are more and more forest fires, a problem aggravated, paradoxically, by the rains of recent months. which have made the undergrowth grow a lotDue to the sudden rise in temperatures, all these grasses and shrubs are now drying out and will soon become fuel. In this regard, Borrell warns that until now the forests were sufficiently humid to prevent the fire from spreading, but this is now changing, and in the coming days they could already burn, greatly increasing the potential hectares that could be burned. Salud Soler Casas, a farmer from Berguedà and member of the Association of Rural Women, assures that rural landowners are responsible for reducing forest density on their own as a "preventive measure," and emphasizes that it is a "very costly" task. Therefore, she points out that better management is needed to prevent the accumulation of forest stands, which prevent firebreaks, and advocates that the undergrowth should be cleared more with the use of livestock. This analysis was also made on Wednesday by the President of the Generalitat (Catalan regional government), Salvador Illa, when he said that "in Catalonia there is too much forest cover." "We must reflect as a country; we must invest more in the mosaics of agricultural and forest land," he admitted.
Specifically, this Thursday, the Regional Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, visited some fields affected by the fire, and the sector asked him to relax regulations regarding creams and grasses, which they consider key to preventing the spread of forest fires. The regional minister responded that it is necessary to promote "a joint alliance" and "create a space for reflection in the rural world," and that the Government will promote an urgent proposal for protected areas in inhabited areas and will deploy measures to minimize the devastating effects of large fires.
The challenges of the "new fires"
"Thermal contrasts resulting from climate change can change the morphology of vegetation in just a few days, transforming fields from green to dry in a short period of time," explains Jordi Fàbrega, Deputy Delegate for Fire Prevention and Forest Management, who highlights this trend as a factor increasing the power of recent fires. In fact, he points out that these fires contain new elements "that we hadn't encountered before," which make them difficult to control even when there is a good agricultural-forestry mosaic. "The characteristics of the Torrefleta and Forejacs fires are similar to a sixth-generation fire, with such a high energy capacity that they evaporate water when attempts are made to extinguish them, a challenge for which we must prepare," adds Fàbrega. This situation was confirmed by the Ponent pyrocumulus. which reached 19,000 metres in altitude (dimensions never seen before in Catalonia) and caused wind gusts of up to 125 km/h.
Although one of the hypotheses about the origin of the Torrefeta fire – the one that has affected the most hectares – is l'spark of'a mowerThe mayor of Sanaüja, Maria Casoliva Zaldo, emphasizes that the weather conditions that reignited the flames are also important. In this regard, Gras—who is also part of an ADF team from the Segarra region—recounts that when they seemed to have the fire under control, conditions changed, with the proliferation of strong hurricane-force winds that aggravated the situation.
Power line failures
The first of Tuesday's fires, which started near Sanaüja, was caused by a "power line failure," says the mayor of the municipality. Casoliva denounces that the area's power grids are in poor condition and have caused "three fires of this type" in recent days. Along these lines, she complains that the council lacks sufficient resources to properly maintain the roads, "which are an important firebreak when it comes to preventing agricultural fires from spreading easily." "We ask that they provide us with the tools to properly manage these areas," concludes the mayor.