Zaragoza wildfire nears 12,000 hectares and is Spain’s biggest of the year

Spain is facing three active wildfires and one that has already been extinguished this Friday, on a day marked by heat, wind and a lack of humidity. The most serious is in the Cinco Villas district in the province of Zaragoza, which has become the largest fire of the year in the country after burning 12,000 hectares. Declared on Wednesday, the fire remains “fairly active” and advanced significantly during Thursday night and the early hours of Friday, according to the authorities. The perimeter has already reached 60 kilometres and has forced the evacuation of six villages: Orés, Asín, Luesia, Malpica de Arba and Uncastillo, in Zaragoza, and Petilla de Aragón, in Navarra. In total, more than 1,100 people have been affected. The blaze is mainly affecting Cerro de Cinco Villas, an area of pine forest with a relay antenna, close to the housing developments of Los Robles and San Lorenzo. The local council opened the municipal sports centre as a shelter and the Military Emergency Unit (UME) deployed support units. The Civil Guard arrested a man on Thursday on suspicion of having started the fire. Several residents alerted the authorities after seeing a person fleeing the area in circumstances that aroused suspicion. At the time of his arrest, the suspect was carrying a rucksack with various items, among them numerous flammable products. After identifying him, officers found that he had previous records for similar offences committed in other Spanish provinces. For his part, the councillor for the Environment, Agriculture and Interior of the Community of Madrid, Carlos Novillo, announced that the regional government will act as a popular prosecution against the detainee and will refer the case to the Community’s General Legal Service. He explained that the measure is intended to defend Madrid’s natural heritage, which in his view has been put at serious risk “because of one person, a heartless individual who has caused a major fire, putting lives in danger”. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, backed this decision and recalled that the regional executive had approved regulations allowing it to appear in court as a popular prosecution in certain offences, including those that harm natural heritage. The roads A-1204, CV-813, A-1202, CV-841 and CV-628 remain closed, although the electricity supply has now been restored in all the localities. Four hundred ground resources and nineteen aircraft worked on extinguishing the fire on Thursday and, overnight, firefighters focused their efforts on protecting homes in Uncastillo.

Guadalajara calls for military reinforcements

In the northern sierra of Guadalajara, another fire declared on Thursday forced the evacuation of La Mierla, Muriel and Umbralejo, and the confinement of Almiruete, Palancares and the Beleña reservoir. The fire was detected by a lookout at 13:55 in La Mierla and spread rapidly: it burned 900 hectares in just a few hours, according to Juan José Fernández, director of the Regional Operational Centre for Forest Fires in Castilla-La Mancha. Given the ferocity of the blaze, the regional government requested intervention by the Military Emergency Unit, which has deployed around one hundred personnel in the area.

Madrid, under control but not yet extinguished

The third active hotspot broke out on Thursday afternoon in Lozoyuela, in the northern sierra of Madrid. It is evolving favourably, although on Friday it was still not under control or fully contained, with 70 hectares burned. Since first thing in the morning, 28 ground resources have been working in the area, together with SUMMA112 emergency medical teams and ERICE Civil Protection units, awaiting the arrival of aerial resources. On Thursday a total of 100 people were evacuated and more than 2,000 were confined to their homes in Buitrago de Lozoya and the outlying hamlets of Cinco Villas and Manjirón, in the municipality of Puentes Viejas; in addition, the Civil Guard evacuated around 50 children from a summer camp in Gandullas. The Community of Madrid activated Operational Situation 2 of the INFOMA wildfire plan and sent an Es-Alert warning to the population. Roads M-126 and M-135 remain closed, and the A-1 was even closed for an hour in its left-hand lane heading towards Burgos. The Hinojosas fire, which started on Wednesday in Ciudad Real, was extinguished after affecting around 800 hectares.

A summer that keeps repeating itself

High temperatures, wind and low humidity, combined with the abundant vegetation left by a rainy spring, explain the speed at which these fires have spread. Experts add another underlying factor: the abandonment of woodland and of rural life, together with climate change, is creating the conditions for fires to become increasingly difficult to control.