Summer is rest time, beach, ice cream, hopefully some trip to a friendlier place of climate and dirt days with friends. If we talk about populations near forests or tree masses, it is also synonymous with something else: anguish. Galicia lived in a hot October 2017when the flames arrived in inhabited areas and forced the neighbors to leave home with Water cubesand three songs have just remembered, in Madrid. Although there the landscape is different, the fire has originated in a Low mountain area Without urbanizing.
Actually it is something that has penetrated throughout Spain: in summer, living near the mountain or hills with vegetation has become a risk factor.
Earrings of three songs. Three songs, a city of 53,000 neighbors From the Community of Madrid, he lives moments of anguish. And rightly. Yesterday, minutes before eight in the afternoon, a fire was declared that with the passing of the hours it has gone Calcinating hectaresforced to evacuate to the neighbors of several urbanizations and even left a deceasedan employee of the equestrian Soto de Viñuelas to which the flames supposedly surrounded them while trying to save the horses.
The emergency services were able to rescue him and transfer him by helicopter to La Paz hospital, but there they could not do anything to save his life. Died a few hours. It was 50 years old and had burns in 98% of the body.
Do we know anything else? Yes. Carlos Novillo, Minister of Environment, He explained that the fire has had “an explosive characteristic” that relates to “a storm that dries” accompanied by strong wind gusts. In fact, he assures that bursts have overcome 70 kilometers per hour. The origin of the flames would be in the known as Third phase of three songs, a low mountain area. The flames have forced evacuating several urbanizationsincluding that of Soto de Viñuelas, and host more than a hundred people in sports center.
In its updated information service the Community of Madrid states that the flames have affected around 1,000 hectaresespecially pastures, thickets and trees, in addition to four homes of the Soto de Viñuelas urbanization. The fire too He has reached The King´s College campus, one of the most recognized British schools in Spain and that houses internal students.
Beyond Madrid. Although the virulence of the three songs has focused the attention of much of the country and its smoke It has been visible From several points of the capital, the truth is that it is not the only asset in Spain. Throughout the last days the flames have hit with greater or lesser force Galicia, Castilla y León, Andalusia either Cataloniaforcing to confine or evacuate thousands of people and razing thousands of hectares. The fire even It has affected to the natural place of the medulla, in the region of El Bierzo, ruining centenary chestnuts.
Summer comes … And the fire. The fires of recent days remember a sad reality to Spain: summer, especially the driest months and with higher temperatures, usually bring more than vacation. With them also the fires. Only between January and September of last year were registered near 4,900 fires forestry. And while the vast majority (approximately 71%) were small -range conatos, in total they razed 43,600 hectares.
64 fires also had consequences for the population and 39 were accompanied by evacuations that affected 4,300 people. There were also five deaths. They may seem high figures, but the forest surface razed by the flames represented only 50% of the average of the last decade. This year at the beginning of August the affected surface exceeded 39,100 hamore than in 2024, although below the average of the decade. The hectares consumed these days in several regions of the country must now be added to that figure.
Live around the field. Not all regions of Spain suffer the scourge of fires with equal intensity. Civio has elaborated A map distributing the more than 6200.00 forest fires registered between 1968 and 2017 and burned at least one hectares and it can be seen how the problem is especially serious in Galicia, the Cantabrian arch and certain areas of Extremadura. The plane reflects a reality that usually hit the most affected points in summer: living in certain pointsnext to wooded areas, it has become a source of anguish.
The case of Galicia. Galicia left a good example in October 2017when the fires ravaged important population nuclei and even charged Several victims. One of the iconic images left by that episode was that of neighbors leaving home with Water buckets or forming Human chains To suffocate the flames. What happened then was especially tragic, but not an isolated case.
In Chandrexa de Queixa, Ourense, A fire Declared last Friday, he has approached the homes so much that he has forced to evict neighbors. Something similar has happened in The Bierzoin Cádiz due to A fire originated in the Sierra de la Plata or at points of Tarragona and Lleida In Julywhen local authorities decided to order confinements to protect people from the flames.
Proximity and something else. The problem is not just living near the mountains. Fire risk depends on more than factors such as high temperatures, low levels of humidity or wind. The pressure on ecosystems, insufficient forest management, the abandonment of traditional uses of the mountain, depopulation or accumulation of vegetation in forests also influence.
“The increase in forest surface does not translate into the increase in healthy, stable and diverse forests. The cultivated and grazing areas in the past are today covered by thickets, young pioneer or monoespecific rods that, without adequate management, are condemned to burn ” warns Miguel Castillo, of the Forest Fire Laboratory of the University of Chile.
Images | Elentir (Flickr), 112 Community of Madrid (X) and José Manuel Gacía (Flickr)
In Xataka | In the middle of the fire, there is something that Spanish firefighters are very aware: the 30-30 rule
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings