Ready for the peak season of fighting forest fires

Forest fires are becoming more virulent, aggressive and dangerously close to homes. Last year alone, the flames caused the evacuation of more than 28,150 people, making 2023 the third year with the highest number of preventive evacuations on record. In addition, 19 large fires were recorded, those in which the affected area exceeds 500 hectares. In total, the flames affected 89,000 hectares. For the second consecutive year, the Government has advanced the state campaign against forest fires, after taking into account the prolonged drought and high temperatures. The climate prediction indicates that this summer will be warmer in the Mediterranean and in the two archipelagos. The state operation is ready from this Saturday to help the Autonomous Communities, which are those who have the powers to prevent and extinguish fires. The end of the campaign is scheduled for October 15, although the date is subject to review.

Everything that surrounds the extinction of forest fires, especially if they are large and require the mobilization of national troops or from different autonomous communities, works as a mechanism in which, in addition to public officials, numerous specialists intervene, ranging from from the experts of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), or in biodiversity, to forestry risk technicians, including the Civil Guard, the Red Cross or those who fight the flames, either from the air or on the ground. The role of the Government in these emergencies is to help the Autonomous Communities by providing different means, such as the 10 forest fire reinforcement brigades (BRIF), the 43rd group of the Air Force, or the Military Emergency Unit (UME), which is the most extraordinary means of aid.

In the great exercise of state coordination involved in the fight against forest fires, in addition to the municipalities and affected communities, the ministries of the Interior, Ecological Transition and Defense intervene, providing different degrees of support to the autonomies depending on the severity. of the emergency. That gravity is measured in four levels that start from zero. At level 1, State resources may be required. Number 2, which implies that the population is at risk of being affected by the flames, allows the presence of the UME to be claimed, which is activated at the request of the Interior, through Civil Protection and Emergencies. At the highest level, level 3, the community requests that the State assume control of the fire, but it has never been requested in a democracy.

Virginia Barcones, director of Civil Protection and Emergencies, dependent on the Interior, reviewed the forestry risk map this Wednesday from the National Center for Emergency Monitoring and Coordination (CEMEM), while explaining the role of her organization in this gear. “Our role is to coordinate and be there, along with the work of the State media, so that the entire mechanism is lubricated and we give the most effective response.” The director of Civil Protection and Emergencies, who is experiencing her first summer in this position, remembers her experiences with forest fires during her time as a Government delegate in Castilla y León. Especially the summer of 2022 and the fire in the Sierra de la Culebra (Zamora), with 22 towns affected and more than 2,000 residents evacuated. In July of that year, 85,000 hectares had burned in Castilla y León, almost half of the area burned in the entire national territory. “We had five activations of the Military Emergency Unit in different fires in one day,” she recalls. From that experience, she remembers the amazement at the virulence of the flames of professionals who had been working in firefighting for many years.

Extreme drought and alert in Levante

The coordination committee of the state forest fire plan, chaired by the Interior and in which Ecological Transition and Defense participate, agreed in May to advance the beginning of the high season. “This is a little more symbolic than effective, because in terms of means, we are willing to intervene throughout the year,” explains María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, director of Biodiversity of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In 2022, a Royal Decree on forest fires has already established the need to reinforce defense throughout the year due to demographic and population changes, such as the fact that homes are located increasingly closer to forest areas, and the impacts of change. climate.

The evolution of forest fires is being good this year, according to Rodríguez. “From January to May we have had 53% less, but that should not lead us to let our guard down because the drought conditions, especially in one part of the country, have been and continue to be very extreme,” he asks. The Levante area, from Catalonia to the south, is in a situation of special alert. This situation makes the vegetation drier and if a fire starts there is a greater chance that it will end up exceeding 500 hectares and becoming a large fire. And in those cases, according to the Director of Biodiversity, experience tells them that it is much more difficult to tackle, precisely because of the state of the vegetation, the temperature and the dryness of the environment.

The two largest fires last year, the one that occurred in May in Pinofranqueado (Extremadura and affected 10,800 hectares), and the one that broke out in August in Tenerife (Canary Islands, 15,000 hectares burned), alone represent 25% of the affected area in 2023. “We must be very forward-looking to prevent the fires that originate from becoming large fires,” asks Rodríguez.

In recent years, large fires have come before the start of the official season. In May 2023, 14 large fires had already been recorded, recalls Benjamín Salvago, deputy director general of prevention, planning and emergencies of Civil Protection. Salvago emphasizes that the population is increasingly aware when evictions are ordered. Civil Protection makes available to the Communities a message sending system, called ES-Alert, which allows alerts to be sent to mobile phones located in an area affected by an emergency, and which can be used, for example, to indicate the route of evacuation in the event of fire. In the Canary Islands they have carried out drills in recent days so that the population becomes familiar with these messages.

Marcelino Núñez, territorial delegate of the Aemet in Extremadura and expert in the behavior of fires and their relationship with atmospheric phenomena, agrees that the high season of fires can be a somewhat diffuse concept, since there are areas, such as Galicia , Basque Country, or Asturias, in which the greatest risk begins in autumn.

The climate prediction data that the agency manages about this summer indicate that it will be warmer than the average of the last 30 years in the Mediterranean arc, with almost 70% probability, and in the two archipelagos. These estimates take into account a reference period ranging from 1991-2000 and “translate into very high temperatures and heat waves that are a little longer than normal,” consistent with the last two years.

Nuñez, who has helped in many fires in Extremadura, emphasizes advice that those interviewed agree on. “The Pinofranqueado fire was in May, out of season,” he remembers. “You can’t relax,” she adds. “Although of course the worst time is always in summer.”

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