The climate helps to control the fires in Zamora and Navarra, with evictions and roads cut

The fight against forest fires on the Peninsula is entrusted this Monday to weather conditions in search of a break.

Thirteen towns in Navarre remain evicted by the fires, and eight roads of the secondary network are closed to facilitate the fight against fires in the foral community.

Although the situation continues to be worrying at many points, the Government of Navarra has detected an improvement as the weather changes.

The climate has also lent a hand in the extinction of the llamas in the Sierra de la Culebra reserve, in Zamora, whose perimeter is stabilized, and covers an area of ​​30,800 hectares.

This Monday it rains.

“Although there is no flame, the work continues”,

The favorable conditions have been repeated in Zamora for the second consecutive night, and that means that the fire, although active, is stabilized and without flame, according to sources from the extinction operation.

To refresh the area and avoid reproductions, a large number of media continue to act, both from the Junta de Castilla y León and the Ministry of the Environment, the Military Emergency Unit and the autonomous communities of Madrid, Cantabria and Galicia.

The panorama is bleak in the territories affected by the fires that are still active in Navarra, which remains at level two of the Civil Protection and Emergency Plan.

This Monday it has been possible to stabilize three of the five fires started this weekend, to which is added a sixth declared in Tiermas, in the area between Navarra and Zaragoza.

This latest focus is advancing towards the Leyre Monastery, where another fire last week burned down a large area of ​​land.

In addition, another focus has been declared in the municipality of Lodosa, although its extension is already limited.

The General Director of the Interior of the Government of Navarra, Amparo López, stated this Tuesday afternoon that the "most critical" situation caused by the fires that affect the Autonomous Community is in Gallipienzo, although she has highlighted that throughout of the day the general situation in Navarra "is improving".

The Vice President of the Provincial Government and Minister of the Interior, Javier Remírez, has detailed that the situation on the flank of the focus that is advancing towards the municipalities of Lerga, Eslava and the aforementioned Gallipienzo, located to the southeast of the Navarran capital, continues to be worrying.

Another front of this fire, the one advancing towards San Martín de Unx and Ujué, also remains active and uncontrolled.

On the other hand, the fire that started on Saturday in Obanos and Muruzábal has two active fronts, one that has reached the south of the Sierra de El Perdón, a few kilometers from the capital of Navarra, and a second flank, which has managed to jump the river Arga and advances in the direction of Puente la Reina, to the southwest of Pamplona.

For now, there is a certain calm in the other fires, which are stabilized,

although constant vigilance is maintained due to the high risk of outbreaks.

Precisely, in one of those outbreaks, the one registered in Los Arcos, just over 65 kilometers south of the capital, farmers have played a fundamental role.

“If we don't take care of what is ours, no one is going to take care of it for us.

From Los Arcos, El Busto, from all the surrounding towns, we got together there and it was better that many of us were there and we managed to stop the fire in the fields, but once we were in the mountains, we had to wait," says Iñigo Arizaleta, one of the they.

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Drama in the Sierra de la Culebra, the paradise of the Iberian wolf that was scorched by lightning

At this time, the extinction work continues with all available resources, including 5 FOCA planes from the Government of Spain and another 10 helicopters from the governments of Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha and the central Executive.

The total extension of the burned area is still unknown, but the Navarrese Government has initiated the procedures to request the central declaration of an area seriously affected by a Civil Protection emergency.

Until that aid arrives, the neighborhood of the affected towns must try to return to normality.

Where the fire has passed, the ground has changed color.

From the yellow of the cereal about to be harvested, to the black and ash gray.

Among the citizens, a lot of helplessness for not having been able to stop the flames before.

They point out the lack of resources and information at the beginning.

This is the case of the municipality of Obanos, whose mayor, Arantxa Hernández, has described the first moments of stupor and bewilderment experienced by the residents who, despite the instructions of the Civil Guard, refused to leave their homes.

“We saw the fire, but we didn't think it would come so fast, it came in a matter of minutes.

Within the chaos, people organize themselves,

and when you have to save houses and try to stop the fire from spreading further, people show their claw.

Here, thanks to the people, we have a people”, she recalls excitedly.

In her case, the greatest damage has occurred in the adjoining crop fields and in a private house, which she has burned down.

Neighboring volunteers from various towns in Navarra and Aragon participate in the extinction of the forest fire in SigüesPABLO LASAOSA

A similar situation has been experienced in the small town of Artazu, 29 kilometers from the Navarran capital.

There the fire surrounded the municipality, forcing its eviction late on Sunday afternoon, although the neighborhood has already been able to return to their homes.

From the height on which it is located, it can be seen how the flames have reached just a few meters from some buildings and orchards, but without causing significant damage, says its mayor, Iñaki Arguiñano: “We have not yet evaluated.

But we are happy because we have saved the town.”

The worst part has been carried out in Legarda, in the vicinity of which one of the most worrying outbreaks originated this Monday.

There, the flames reached a few meters from the houses and there is charred street furniture.

The fire even set fire to some of the buildings in the center of town.

One of her neighbors, Pilar, remembers those first moments, in which she saw "there was a lot of smoke" and was surprised by the speed with which the flames lit up and moved.

For its part, in the municipality of San Martin de Unx, affected by the forest fire that started in the vicinity of Ujué, they are grateful to both the firefighters and the citizens.

One of the residents of the town, Julián Palacios, stresses: “No house has been burned, something that could have happened calmly, thanks to the fact that we were all collaborating in what we could.

It gives me joy to say that the town is fine because it was hard”.

The situation worries the public to such an extent that on Sunday, the SOS Navarra emergency management center received more than 4,400 calls.

A higher figure even than those recorded during the first days of the covid pandemic.

Most of them were carried out either by people alarmed by the proximity of the fire or by those who had already been evacuated.

Several UME vehicles circulate on a road in the Sierra de la Culebra, this Monday. Luis Sevillano

The fire has devastated, according to estimates made late Sunday afternoon from the images of the helicopter that coordinates the extinction, a total of 30,799.3 hectares, of which almost half are estimated to be forest area wooded, with a perimeter that extends along 120.88 kilometers.

The fire, which was declared late Wednesday afternoon by the lightning of a dry storm with several simultaneous outbreaks, forced the evacuation of more than 1,250 people from twenty localities, who were transferred to sports halls far from the fire in which they spent the night until the danger passed.

A worker at a machinery checkpoint was injured with burns on his hands during the extinction tasks.

The Sierra de la Culebra is an environmental enclave that forms part of the Meseta Ibérica biosphere reserve, and which has the largest concentration of wolves in the peninsula and large populations of deer and roe deer.

Fueled by high temperatures, low humidity and winds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, the fire also spread through the Tera valley on Saturday and forced the cutting of two national highways and the Madrid-Galicia AVE line.

The president of the regional government, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, has announced a special plan for the environmental and socioeconomic recovery of the area, while the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has sent technicians this Monday to begin the damage assessment for the establishment of aid.

Image of the damage caused by the forest fire in Sigües (Navarra) PABLO LASAOSA

200 forest fires in Catalonia in five days

In Catalonia, where on Saturday there were more than thirty simultaneous fires, the strong gusts of wind in the Lleida region and the simultaneity of fires have been the main elements with which the firefighting specialists in Artesa have fought de Segre, active since Wednesday and affecting some 2,700 hectares.

Firefighters hope to stabilize the flames this afternoon, after 36 hours without growing.

The Government Delegate in Lleida explained that, although it may stabilize in the next few hours, the firefighters will continue to be in Artesa for at least four days.

The causes are still being studied, according to the head of the rural agents in Lleida, Llorens Rico, since, although the day it began there was lightning, agricultural work was also carried out.

Catalonia has suffered some 200 forest fires since Wednesday, which represents an average of 50 a day.

In Valencia, work continues to put out the forest fire in Caudiel (Castellón), which was brought under control on Sunday.

In Aragon, a fire broke out on Monday in Castejón de Tornos (Teruel), which has forced the authorities to vacate a nursing home in Burbáguena due to the proximity of the flames, as published by the Autonomous Government Emergency Center.

Late in the afternoon, firefighters from the Diputación de Teruel contained the fire and continued to work in the nearby area, the provincial institution reported.

Another fire, in Sigüés (Zaragoza), is in the stabilization phase after charring 60 hectares.

Damage caused by the forest fire in the Sierra de la Culebra, this Monday. Luis Sevillano