Fire La Patoja de Jumilla
The Military Emergency Unit will withdraw to its base in Bétera, in Valencia, this afternoon
The night has been long for the dozens of firefighters who have fought against the fire that has affected the area of La Patoja in Jumilla since dawn on Saturday. More than 70 people have worked on the perimeter of the fire, which was declared controlled at 1:00 p.m. this Sunday.
Thanks to these tasks, the coordination commands have decided to lower the level of the fire to 1, reducing its severity, which implies the withdrawal of the 45 members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) that arrived in the area at 5:00 p.m. Saturday to help put out the fire. The soldiers are resting after the night work in which they have participated and, if there is no deterioration in the situation, they will return to their barracks in Bétera, in Valencia, after 4:00 p.m. this Sunday.
A helicopter flies over the area to recognize the most sensitive areas and to cool the hottest spots. The rest of the troops withdrew after controlling the fire and only four fire brigades from the Region of Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha remain in the area.
It was the lightning of the storm that swept the Region of Murcia during the early hours of Saturday that caused this fire in the area of La Patoja. Given the difficulty encountered by the Community’s own resources to work in the area and the forecast of new storms and changes in the wind, the regional government asked the Ministry of Defense to send the UME in the morning to help with the tasks of extinction. According to sources consulted by LA VERDAD, the department led by Margarita Robles asked the Community for additional information to justify the dispatch of military personnel, who finally arrived at La Patoja. The president of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, thanked the UME on Twitter for its “rapid response, after requesting air and land resources to join the operation.”
Level 2
At the time that the UME arrived in Jumilla, the fire reached a perimeter of almost 12 kilometers in length that was already “contained”. Given the extent of the fire, the Community decided to activate the Infomur Emergency Plan at level 2, which means high severity. In addition, the Aemet warned of the probability of more storms throughout the afternoon and that the intensity of the wind could also increase.
This possibility is the one that kept the entire Emergency operation deployed in the area on edge throughout the day and the one that makes the members of the device maintain “prudence”, since the strong gusts of air could cause the fire to spread. extended to the Sierra del Molar, according to the Emergency Counselor, Antonio Luengo. The head of the Ministry considered this option as “the main risk” for the evolution of the flames, due to the direction in which the wind blows. Therefore, the main objective was focused on “controlling and reducing the fire as quickly as possible,” Luengo stressed.
Yesterday, the delegate of the Government, José Vélez, traveled to the advanced command post; the Emergency Counselor, Antonio Luengo; the general director of Citizen Security, Fulgencio Perona; and the mayor of Jumilla, Juana Guardiola. The post was installed in the hellinera district of Cancarix, since the fire also borders this municipality of Albacete. In fact, Luengo explained that approximately half of the affected area is territory of the Region of Murcia and the other half belongs to Castilla-La Mancha. Of the more than 400 hectares burned, 180 belong to the Region and around 220 to the neighboring community. In addition, numerous inhabitants of different localities joined the device and provided agricultural machinery to help control the flames.
other fires
A second fire was located at dawn yesterday in the municipality of Hellín, but close to the municipality of Calasparra. The Government of Castilla-La Mancha considered this fire controlled in the morning, declared in the Lomas de Gamonal, in the vicinity of the Camarillas reservoir, where scrubland and Mediterranean pine were burned. 100 people and 27 means (23 ground and four aerial) participated in the extinction work. This fire broke out shortly after midnight and was also caused by lightning. The flames and the blaze it caused could be seen from large areas of the region, since it was located just three kilometers from the provincial border with Albacete.
The troops of the Infomur Plan had to multiply throughout the day. In the afternoon, the 112 received the warning of another forest fire caused by another lightning bolt, this time in the area of Somogil, in Moratalla. The evolution of this fire, in an area where it rained in the afternoon, was much more favourable. All alerts were also activated yesterday in Archena, where several outbreaks threatened homes and a nursing home that, despite everything, was not expected to be evacuated.
The weather forecast
On the other hand, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) does not foresee storms for this Sunday in the Jumilla area, although it does have gusts of wind that can reach 30 kilometers per hour throughout the Altiplano region. Temperatures will be high again in much of the Region of Murcia, where the Aemet activates the orange warning for today in Vega del Segura for maximums that can reach 42 degrees. In the Altiplano, it will be around 40 degrees, so the Aemet has activated the yellow alert in this area due to high temperatures from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
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