A fire that broke out in the early hours of Thursday afternoon in the Madrid municipality of Tres Cantos has reached a housing estate in the neighbouring Colmenar Viejo called El Rondelo, where all the homes, around 50, have been evacuated as a precaution by the Civil Guard, according to information provided to this newspaper. a spokesperson for 112 Emergencies Community of Madrid. The flames have reached some of the houses. In addition, the emergency services have treated seven people, four neighbours and three civil guards, for mild smoke poisoning. At around 9:00 p.m., the firefighters declared the fire stabilized, which has already burned 535 hectaresand the Government has deactivated the Military Emergency Unit (UME).
At 4:30 p.m., the fire brigade commanders declared operational status 1 of the Civil Protection Plan against forest fires in the Community of Madrid (Infoma) due to the possibility that it could slightly affect “the population and non-forestry assets.” The reason is the proximity of the El Rondelo housing estate to one of the flanks of the fire. In addition, the collaboration of the central government has been requested, which has provided a helicopter-transported brigade to collaborate in the control tasks.
At 17:45, 30 teams were working to extinguish the fire, including forestry brigades, forest rangers and regional firefighters, of which four are airborne and 26 are ground-based. The team, the spokesman said, were “trying to prevent the fire, which has generated a large column of smoke in the area, from going beyond a stream because access from there is difficult.”
The situation was “ugly, as a very gusty wind” was making it difficult to enclose the fire and prevent its spread, in addition to the fact that the terrain had numerous hollows. “The fire is gaining strength and speed,” the spokesman explained at that time.
But everything has gone from bad to worse and at 19.30 the situation has been moved to level 2 of Infoma, which means that it was feared that the impact on the population could be serious, so extraordinary means are required. Thus, the regional government has asked for help from the UME. In addition to land and air supplies, heavy machinery has been incorporated to create a security perimeter.
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In the report of that hour, the 112 reported that Summa 112 paramedics had treated seven people with mild smoke inhalation, four of whom were residents of houses near the evacuated housing estate and three were Civil Guards. Two of the residents, aged 45 and 55, were taken to La Paz Hospital. In the El Rondelo housing estate, several houses were hit by flames. In September 2013, a fire had already destroyed 14 houses in the same housing estate, 25 minutes from the centre of Madrid, and seven in Tres Cantos.
At around 8:00 p.m., luck changed, “the wind stopped” and in just half an hour great progress was made against the flames, so that at 8:45 p.m. has returned to operational status 1. “The resources continue to work intensively on the ground to surround the entire affected area,” the 112 spokesman detailed at that time. The fire is now in a stabilization phase. Most of the affected land is grass with some isolated trees.
The forest fire in Rivas Vaciamadrid is under control
The 112 has declared the forest fire under control, which started early Wednesday morning in a pine forest area of Rivas Vaciamadrid, and which has burned around 11 hectares of land. However, according to has indicated Emergencies in a publication of Xduring the day on Thursday a patrol will remain in the area to monitor possible outbreaks of the fire.
The fire started in an area near Pilar Miró Avenue in the Madrid town and it was the neighbours who alerted the situation by phone. 11 teams of firefighters from the Community of Madrid were dispatched to the scene and, together with the brigades and forest rangers, they managed to stop the fire from advancing towards the houses, despite the wind and the fact that it is a complex orographic area, until they managed to stabilise it seven hours after it started, at 2.30 in the morning on Wednesday.
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