The general situation of the fires that affect a good part of Spain has given a truce this Thursday.
In the worst of the fires in Galicia —the one that affects the parishes of Vilamor (Folgoso do Courel) and Saa (A Pobra do Brollón), both in Lugo, and which has burned some 10,000 hectares, according to the balance of the Ministry of Rural Environment of the Xunta—, it has been possible to stop the advance of the flames, which in recent days have damaged the Courel Mountains Unesco Geopark, and work is being done to prevent outbreaks from reproducing.
For its part, another of the worst fires of the month, the one that has devastated 14,000 hectares in the Aragonese town of Ateca, began during the reforestation work of a farm by a specialized company, as recognized by the company itself in a statement .
The fire in Galicia, one of the largest in the history of the autonomous community, occurred after the union of four independent sources and reaches risk level two, the second highest on a scale of four, as it threatens the nuclei of Montes and Carballal stop (Folgoso) and Busto (A Pobra do Brollón).
Added to this fire is the one in Lugo, which has devastated 1,100 hectares in Seceda, another parish in Folgoso, which threatens the population center of Gamiz, and which was also still active early this Thursday afternoon.
Photograph taken with a drone of a swimming pool and a construction surrounded by the calcined surface in the town of San Cibrao (Oimbra), this Friday.
Brais Lorenzo (EFE)
Vehicles burned in the Zaragoza town of Ateca, this Thursday. Javier Cebollada (EFE)
A fire truck was advancing on Monday in the burned forest near El Pont de Vilomara, north of Barcelona. ALBERT GEA (REUTERS)
A woman cries this Wednesday before the state in which the houses have been left in the village of Alixo, in Galicia, where on Sunday and Monday the flames devoured fifteen houses.
OSCAR CORRAL
A house surrounded by the burned forest in the town of A Veiga da Cascallá (Ourense), on Tuesday.
Brais Lorenzo (EFE)
A neighbor was checking the damage to his swimming pool on Tuesday after a fire near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, in Barcelona. Emilio Morenatti (AP)
A resident of the village of Alixo (Galicia) visits the state of a house burned by fire.
Pedro Sánchez visited this parish on Tuesday in the Ourense municipality of O Barco de Valdeorras, in whose region a single fire has devastated more than 7,500 hectares.ÓSCAR CORRAL
A cat in a completely burned area after a fire in the town of A Veiga de Cascallá, in Ourense, this Wednesday.
Brais Lorenzo (EFE)
Agustín, 72, was walking on Tuesday through his property burned by the fire unleashed near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, in Barcelona.
Emilio Morenatti (AP)
Alex, 55, hugged his son on Tuesday next to his house burned by a forest fire in the town of River Park, near the town of El Pont de Vilomara (Barcelona). Emilio Morenatti (AP)
A dead goat lay on the ground Tuesday after a forest fire on a farm in San Martín de Tabara, in Zamora.
Bernat Armangue (AP)
A woman was pouring water on Tuesday in an area of vegetation affected by the Losacio fire, in Zamora, which has forced the eviction of 17 towns.
Emilio Fraile (Europa Press)
The great fire of El Pont de Vilomara (Barcelona), which between Sunday and Monday devastated more than 1,700 hectares and affected dozens of homes, some completely destroyed, was intentional.
In the photo, a resident looked at the burned forest on Tuesday. Emilio Morenatti (AP)
General view of the area affected by the Folgoso do Courel fire (Lugo), on July 20.
Carlos Castro (Europa Press)
In Ourense, the Carballeda de Valdehorras fire has claimed 10,500 hectares of burned land and remains at risk level 2 due to its proximity to the Candeda nucleus.
In addition, it affects the Serra da Enciña da Lastra Natural Park.
The Vilariño de Conso fires (5,200 hectares burned), which affect the Invernadeiro natural area, and the Oímbra fire (1,800 hectares damaged) are also still active.
The Xunta has announced this Thursday that it will give up to 122,000 euros for the loss of habitual residence and up to 61,200 euros if it is a second residence.
The Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, has pointed out that the origin of many fires is in an "anomalous" situation of dry storms and lightning.
As for the Ateca fire, in Aragon, a company dedicated to reforestation has recognized that it was the indirect cause of the fire that has charred 14,000 hectares.
The company Land Life subcontracted a local company to dig the holes in which next winter it will place the seedlings that will reforest the area, as detailed in a statement on Thursday.
The letter does not specify how exactly the fire was caused and highlights that it was the workers of that contract who alerted the emergency services that a fire had started.
The situation of the fire, still active and after destroying 14,000 hectares, has made it possible to reopen this Thursday all the roads that had been cut off on Wednesday, such as the A-2,
Meanwhile, in Castilla y León, the Losacio (Zamora) fire, which burned 2,000 hectares in just one hour, has been stabilized.
A calculation based on the provisional data of the Copernicus system stipulates that the burned area could reach 36,000 hectares, above the 34,290 of the fire in Minas de Riotinto (Huelva) in 2004, which until now constituted the fire that has burned the most surface in history, informs
Juan Navarro
.
Residents who had been evicted have been able to return to their homes.
And a businessman who used his own machinery to try to make a firewall in Tábara and was engulfed by the flames, is still hospitalized this Thursday in critical condition and with burns on 80% of his body, sources from the Ministry of Health of Tábara have informed Efe. the Junta de Castilla y León.
The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, has gone to the command post to speak with those responsible for extinguishing the fire and with inhabitants of the region.
🗺️ Plan with the area affected in #CyL by #IFLosacio
🔥 35,960 ha burned
🔸 #IFLosacio |
Level 2⃣
⬆️ Level 2 on July 17
Source: @CopernicusEMS pic.twitter.com/8xX5Q6Vvbh
– Nature Castilla y León (@naturalezacyl) July 21, 2022
The fire in Cebreros (Ávila) is still active, where 4,400 hectares have already burned and this Thursday almost 300 people helped by 17 aerial means continued to work to try to stabilize the fire.
The perspective to achieve this is "optimal" except for changes in the winds, has indicated the Minister of the Environment of Castilla y León, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones.
For their part, the residents of El Hoyo de Pinares (2,136 inhabitants) have been evicted since Monday, of which 90 —of the initial 300— are still housed in the provisional shelter installed in the nearby town of Las Navas del Marqués.
In León, the foci of the Montes de Valdueza, in El Bierzo, with risk level two, whose western front continues to advance slowly, are of particular concern;
also that of Puente de Domingo Pérez, still uncontrolled.
In Tenerife, the fire that is spreading through Los Realejos and San Juan de la Rambla is still "small" in size, but "with a lot of potential to spread," said the spokesman for the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez.
With a perimeter of five kilometers, it has affected 110 hectares of forest and pine forest.
Forest fires have already destroyed 517,881 hectares in the European Union since the beginning of the year;
a figure that already exceeds that of 2021, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), in a report published this Thursday with data updated to July 16.
In 2021, a year that saw major fires in Italy and Greece, 470,359 hectares (more than 4,700 square kilometers) burned across EU countries, according to data compiled by EFFIS.
2017 was the worst in recent years, with almost a million hectares charred.