More than half Andalusia, at extreme risk of forest fires during the first days of August. After an extremely hot month of July where the members of the Infoca Plan have had to deal with the flames day after day, August does not start with better forecasts. In fact, the map of the region is stained red during the central days of the week, so, from their social networks, the firefighters ask for caution.
A message that the Junta de Andalucía has also emphasized through the Minister of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, who has called for “collective responsibility” to prevent the community from suffering as it is doing Greece, Italy or Algeria.
The heat and the lack of precipitation this year are a cocktail that worries the agents who fight the fire a lot. This weekend alone, Infoca has carried out up to 18 actions to control some forest fires declared in Pinos Genil (Granada), Antequera (Málaga), Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) and Alcalá del Río (Seville). All of them have been controlled but the heat warnings issued by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) for the next few days and the data handled by the Fire Analysis Technical Unit (UTAF) of the Infoca Regional Operations Center activate all the alarms.
“We are in the worst time for forest fires”, commented the Minister of the Environment, who pointed out that, for the moment, the firefighters “are not having to work hard” as in past years. “Andalusia is prepared and has the best device in Spain” to deal with this type of catastrophe, although it has asked that people who enjoy the natural environment access it carefully and with extreme caution, as well as advising to follow the instructions and recommendations of each place.
According to the data provided by Infoca, consulted by this newspaper, almost the entire territory of Córdoba and Jaén and Seville are on maximum alert, while Huelva, Granada and Málaga have this same alarm in some parts of their territory. The rest of the Andalusian provinces (Cádiz and Almería) have a very high level of suffering this type of fire. And it seems that this situation will not change during August. Although the weather has given citizens a truce during the last days of July, the truth is that the heat is going to return with force for the first weekend of the new month. Points like Seville and Córdoba will once again reach and exceed 40 degrees.
In fact, today Tuesday the Aemet has activated the yellow warning in Córdoba, Huelva, Jaén and Seville, where the mercury will settle between 38 and 39 degrees, while Malaga, with an orange warning, will reach 40.
The fire that devastated Sierra Bermeja, in Malaga, last year will remain in the collective memory. Preventing a situation like this from occurring again is key and for this, the indications given must be followed, minimizing risk scenarios.
According to the Infoca 2022 Plan report, behind most of the declared fires is the hand of man (in 54.29% of cases). 29.61% of them were intentional and 24.68% originated from negligence. Only last year a total of 15,786.64 hectares were burned in the region, the highest figure since 2012, despite the fact that the number of fires is lower than in other times. In total, 181 fires were recorded (213 in 2017) and 770 actions were carried out on forest land.
Malaga was the province with the greatest loss of forest mass. Here 13.25% of the actions were concentrated and where 41.49% of forest land was lost (6,550.34 hectares between trees and scrub). Behind it is Granada, where the flames devastated 33.67% of the surface (5,316.07 hectares) and 11.82% of the actions were carried out.
