Due to strong winds, a forest fire on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, on the border with France, progressed rapidly on Friday evening, resulting in the confinement of a village and a campsite in this tourist area.
The area affected by the fire extended over 150 hectares around 7:25 p.m., compared to 50 hectares less than an hour earlier, according to the latest provisional report published on Twitter, renamed X, by forest rangers dependent on the Catalan government.
If I don’t say it, I burst. The cause of the fire is unknown, but I go running or walking every day here in Portbou in the summer and I see cars lifting the forest fence that prevents access to the slopes and also a lot of vans and caravans doing little to the campsites gas Video Tomàs Gasull pic.twitter.com/jMafTeS7PG
“Due to the fire in Portbou”, a Spanish town bordering France with an important train station between the two countries, “the firefighters of Catalonia ordered the confinement of the municipality of Colera, the area of ??La Rovellada and the campsite of Sant Miquel,” said the Civil Protection of the Catalan region.
The village of Colera sees its population of 500 inhabitants multiplied each summer by the tourists who flock to the Spanish beaches. The Sant Miquel campsite has a capacity of 720 people, according to a Catalan government website.
The road leading to the nearest town, Portbou, on the border with France, was closed due to the fire. Dozens of units of Catalan firefighters, including several air units, are already mobilized, said the Catalan firefighters.
?? This evening, a major fire is underway in Portbou, on the border between Pyrénées-Orientales and Spain. The flames are impressive. (© Fatima Llambrich) pic.twitter.com/szyy9SDsXf
Ten French fire trucks and light vehicles, from the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales, bordering the area of ????the fire, are taking part in the operation.
A French water bomber plane was dispatched but it could not make an airdrop due to strong winds, a spokesman for the French firefighters told AFP. “For now, the fire is confined to Spanish territory,” the spokesperson added in the early evening.
Spanish firefighters explained that “air operations were complicated” by a northerly wind, with gusts of more than 50km / h, according to the Spanish meteorological agency Aemet.
