The first major forest fire of the year burned an area equivalent to about 5,500 football fields. Last year, 306,000 hectares of forest were destroyed in Spain.
Spain’s first major wildfire of the year destroyed more than 4,000 hectares in two days. Around 500 emergency services continued to fight the blaze in the east of the country overnight, the Spanish emergency service said on Saturday. From dawn, 20 helicopters and firefighting planes could be used again, he said.
Because of the fire, around 1,500 people were evacuated to safety from their homes in more than ten towns in the provinces of Castellón and Teruel as a precaution. The area of destroyed forest on the border between the regions of Valencia and Aragon is approximately the size of 5,500 football fields.
According to official information, extinguishing work was hampered by strong winds, low humidity and relatively high temperatures of over 20 degrees. There were therefore many power outages and several rural roads were still closed on Saturday, he said.
“Living the fifth consecutive year of drought”
For now, the cause of the fire is still unknown. The authorities suspect “a poorly carried out agricultural combustion”. Spain’s Minister for Ecological Change, Teresa Ribera, also pointed to man-made climate change. “We are experiencing the fifth consecutive year of drought in the Iberian Peninsula,” Ribera told state television station RTVE. Unfortunately, there are more and more large fires outside of the fire season.
2022 was the most devastating wildfire year for Spain since the European wildfire information system EFFIS started recording. According to measurements by the European Earth observation system Copernicus, an area of a good 306,000 hectares was destroyed in 493 major fires last year. There are more than 3,000 square kilometers.
(APA/dpa)