A week from the end of winter, a very active forest fire, infuriated by the wind – on a very complicated day in Catalonia with two more fires in wooded areas – forced 11 residents of the Mas urbanization to evacuate last night Honey and confined in some houses in the same urbanization and in Bellamar, in Calafell (Baix Penedès). The fire, which started at 5.55 p.m. on the Escarnosa mountain, mobilized 48 fire brigades to try to contain the advance of the flames during the night.
With a perimeter of 25 hectares last night, the fire burned some fences and gardens, “but it did not cause damage inside the homes”, according to the Generalitat Fire Department. The main concern, in fact, was the proximity to the two housing estates, and the wind.
The strength of the fire was visible from several kilometers around in the Baix Penedès. Before evening, with huge columns of smoke, and at night, with the glow of the flames.
Earlier, in the morning, 25 Fire Department vehicles worked on another forest fire in the mountains in the interior of Tarragona which forced the activation of 158 personnel. The combination of the fire with wind gusts of up to 90 km/h in an unusually dry forest, after two years without significant rainfall, made the fire a challenge for firefighters.
The gale made it impossible for aerial media to work on the Baix Camp and Calafell fires, which left ground vehicles alone in front of the flames.
In a perfect storm scenario, the tireless work of the Firefighters for ten hours, from 2.30 yesterday morning, made it possible to stop the progress of the fire in Baix Camp.
Hours of anguish for the residents of Calafell, with woe in their hearts all night, and of Selva del Camp, where the fire started in the morning; and also in Albiol (Baix Camp), where fifteen residents of half a dozen isolated houses were confined.
Infrequent forest fires for this time of year, at the end of winter, and in the area, next to the Prades mountains and in the Baix Penedès.
The weather conditions, especially the wind, and the more than two years of drought explain the high risk of fire in parts of Catalonia and the strength of the two fires, in Calafell and Baix Camp.
Until these two fires, which did not affect any houses, nearly a hundred land vehicles were mobilized separately yesterday, although not all of them managed to intervene. For the big forest fires of the summer, more than 80 land resources are activated.
A poorly extinguished burn of plant remains with soil would have produced a “charcoal effect” in the Selva del Camp, where the fire started this morning in the Baix Camp. The person responsible for this burning has been identified.
