The forest fire, which burned nearly 600 hectares in Catalonia, on the border with France, remains under control on Sunday, despite a few recoveries thanks to strong winds. “A few small recoveries were quickly brought under control by the firefighters. The night was very windy, with gusts of up to 70 km/h,” Catalan firefighters said in a statement, posted on the government website. In a short video posted on their X account (formerly Twitter), we can see flames rising in the early morning on the side of a wooded hill, fanned by the tramontana.
According to the latest weather forecasts, the wind should strengthen in the afternoon, again complicating the intervention of planes and helicopters. Dozens of firefighters remain mobilized.
The fire broke out on Friday afternoon on the Mediterranean coast, south of the border town of Portbou, and was stabilized on Saturday evening, allowing the deconfinement of the villages concerned and the resumption of rail traffic in this very region. sightseeing. In total, more than 300 Catalan and French firefighters were mobilized.
A second major fire broke out on Saturday afternoon in the southern region of Andalusia, near the village of Bonares. After a night of fierce fighting, the regional forest firefighting service (Infoca) announced Sunday morning on X, that the fire was “stabilized”, thus raising the state of alert for the population. More than 150 firefighters and 17 air resources were mobilized.
Andalusia on orange alert
“Great work by all the personnel deployed in Bonares. I am delighted that the evacuees can return to their homes,” said the President of the Andalusian government Juanma Moreno, also on X. Controlling these fires offers respite to firefighters in these two regions, plagued by intense drought. .
However, Spain is preparing to enter a new heat wave on Monday and Andalusia is already on orange alert with temperatures expected to exceed 40°C, according to the national meteorological agency (Aemet ).
In 2022, 300,000 hectares were decimated by more than 500 fires in Spain, a record in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). More than 70,000 hectares have already burned in 2023 in the country.