Catalan and French firefighters succeeded on Saturday in controlling a fire on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, near the border, thanks to less violent winds which allowed the use of water bomber planes.
“Stabilized”, simply wrote, with relief, the Catalan firefighters on Twitter, renamed X, after more than 24 hours of fierce struggle.
About fifteen units with sixty firefighters will continue their work overnight and the air resources should be redeployed on Sunday morning if the weather permits, they added in a press release.
The fire broke out on Friday around 5:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT) in the south of the border town of Portbou, a very touristy forest area whose station allows connections between France and Spain.
Some 573 hectares, mostly forest, were affected, according to provisional data from Catalan forest rangers, which have not changed since midday.
A Catalan government official, Joan Ignasi Elena, confirmed to journalists on the spot the lifting of the confinement of the surrounding villages.
The inhabitants are however invited to stay at home as much as possible and to limit their movements so as not to hinder the work of the firefighters.
This advance was made possible by a lull in the gusts of Tramontana, which had previously prevented the intervention of helicopters and water bombers, with gusts which reached nearly 100km / h overnight from Friday to Saturday.
However, firefighters remain cautious. The wind should pick up again in the evening, according to the latest weather forecast.
During the afternoon, firefighters tried to prevent the fire from spreading to homes in the town of Llançà, located further south, where 2,500 hectares were potentially threatened.
Nearly 300 Spanish firefighters were mobilized as well as a dozen French trucks from the Pyrénées-Orientales department, bordering the area of ??the fire.
An investigation is still underway to determine the origin of the fire, according to regional authorities.
About 135 people were evacuated overnight from Friday to Saturday, while several hundred others were confined to villages or campsites that welcome thousands of tourists every summer.
Catalan Red Cross volunteers take part in operations to support the population and welcome people who cannot return to their homes.
According to the Catalan Civil Protection, electricity has been restored in the municipalities affected earlier in the day by cuts, with up to 4,000 homes affected early Saturday.
Rail traffic was restored in the early evening between Portbou and Figueres, about thirty kilometers further south, according to the same source. In the morning, flames rose just behind Portbou station, according to an AFP photographer.
In 2022, nearly 500 fires devoured more than 300,000 hectares in Spain, a record in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). This year, the number of hectares burned is around 70,000 hectares, according to the same source.
Catalonia is currently experiencing an episode of intense drought which led to the triggering of the maximum alert level for the first time in several municipalities earlier this week.
05/08/2023 23:15:22 – Portbou (Espagne) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
