The first major forest fire of the year in Spain has already destroyed around 3,000 hectares in the east of the country. In the affected area, on the border between the regions of Aragon and Valencia, around 1,500 people were evacuated from their homes between Thursday and Friday, state television broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media reported, citing the authorities.
“gluttonous” flames
More than ten towns in the provinces of Castellón and Teruel were affected as of Friday afternoon. The flames were “very voracious” from the beginning, explained to journalists the head of the government of the region of Valencia, Ximo Puig. The forest area destroyed so far is equivalent to more than 4,000 soccer fields. There were several power outages, at least three rural roads were closed on Friday.
“We were told to leave as soon as possible. We took our pajamas and that was it,” a visibly worried elderly woman told RTVE. The mayor of Montanejos, a town of 550 people affected by the evacuations, Miguel Sandalinas, admitted: “We are all very worried.”
strong winds
According to the Aemet meteorological service, fighting the flames was hampered by strong winds, low humidity and relatively high temperatures of more than 20 degrees. According to official information, about 20 helicopters and firefighting aircraft, in addition to dozens of ground units from the fire department, the UME military rescue unit, civil defense and the SAMU emergency service were called in on Friday.
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. For comparison: Vorarlberg has an area of almost 2600 square kilometers.