The Jarilla (Cáceres) fire continues its progress after five days in which 11,000 hectares and 130 kilometers of perimeter with “unfavorable” prognosis have already devastated. The main concern of the Board of Extremadura focuses on the north flank of the fire, which “remains runaway,” according to sources from the regional government, and has caused new confinements and evictions this Sunday. In the morning, the municipality of Gargantilla (360 inhabitants) has been evacuated, as well as about 80 homes in the peri -urban area of Hervás – one of the largest villages in the Jerte Valley, with 4,000 inhabitants. In addition, Hervás has been confined, although the wind is “favorable” and the urban nucleus is not expected to reach, according to displaced personnel. The fire threatens the jewel of the flora of this area, the Castañar. At the moment it also worries that it jumps to Castilla y León, because the flames are located a few kilometers from Salamanca. The displaced firefighters say that it is very likely that the Extremadura border in the next few hours is transparent.
In parallel, the president of the community, the popular María Guardiola, so he considers a “insufficient” media shipping to Extremadura, in a week “unusual” for the region due to the simultaneity of focuses. From the advanced command post, after 16.00, the Minister of the Presidency, Abel Bautista, has listed the media requested from the central executive and those granted, putting the focus on which, he maintains, there are much less than those required.
Extremadura has risen this Sunday with eight active fires and after an intense night in which the media deployed had to be used thoroughly in which it is more seriously, Jarilla’s fire, originated on Tuesday by lightning. This Friday, in the municipalities of Cabezabelosa, Villar de Plasencia and Jarilla when the situation in these municipal terms, located next to the Jerte Valley. But the meteorological conditions recorded on the afternoon of this Saturday caused the formation of a pyrocumulus – a cumuliform cloud that is formed by the intense heat of forest fires – aggravating the situation in other foci. “The northern part has its own life and does not allow to draw a strategy,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Abel Bautista.
In this northern flank, the Civil Guard had to evict the municipality of Gargantilla and confine boils past 11.00 as the fire advanced through the port of Honduras, in the Ambroz Valley. The authorities have asked residents to remain inside the properties with closed windows and doors to avoid smoke inhalation dangers through the alert message on mobile phones. With the flames at a few meters away, the neighbors of Hervás expressed concern for their homes, but, above all, they showed their fear of the possible burning of specimens of the Galician chestnut, which has one of the most important masses in Spain in the port of Honduras.
In the south, the means of extinction were raised so that the flames did not reach the city of Plasencia (40,000 inhabitants), from where the columns of smoke could be seen in the morning. According to data from the Board of Extremadura, 10 Forest Firefighters, two machinery equipment, six natural environment agents, six extinction technicians, two troops from the team of the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF), two sections of the Emergency Military Unit (UME) and 17 aerial media. In addition, a Slovakia and “media” helicopter from Germany has arrived.
The fall of rays, the high temperatures, the wind speed and the “piómanos” have converged in a “extraordinary” way, explain Fuentes the regional executive. Displaced firefighters coincide in the difficulty of stopping the situation with so many foci at the same time. “This summer is crazy about the amount of fires. There are no means, but because they are very distributed,” said an cash from the Diputación de Cáceres while working in Hervás this Sunday.
Political war
While the media beat against fire in the eight fires that ravage Extremadura, the Guardiola’s regional government and the administration fight its own battle. The controversy between the popular Guardiola and President Sánchez is still increasing by the words of the Government delegate during the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) this Sunday morning. The president of the community has assured that they have asked the government for more means, as well as the intervention of the Army of Earth, but that the Government delegate in the community, José Luis Quintana, has informed them that “it has no capacity to send more means to a fire that has a perimeter of more than 100 kilometers”, censoring their words.
The central administration, on the other hand, rejects not to have that capacity. “Although fire extinction is the competence of the Autonomous Communities, the Government of Spain, since minute one, has been and is next to the Board of Extremadura to extinguish the fires,” Quintana insisted on statements collected by Europa Press.
