A firefighter has died and another has been injured when the pump dump in which they came to participate in the tasks of extinction of the fires that ravage the province of León, according to El País sources of the operation have confirmed to El País. The deceased was the driver of the vehicle, according to the same sources. The accident, whose causes are unknown, has occurred on a forest track of the local complicat (29 inhabitants), near Ponferrada.
With him there are already three fatalities in this province because of the fire in the last week, after two volunteers were reached by the flames in the towns of Quintana and Congosto. A fourth person was dead on August 11 in the fire unleashed in three songs (Madrid). Six others suffered serious burns in Abejera (Zamora).
The president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, published shortly after midnight a message on the social network X in which he was “shocked by the death of a member of the operation” and wanted “a speedy recovery to his partner, who has been injured.”
The death of the two volunteers on Tuesday and last Thursday forced the authorities in recent days to ask for the neighbors who collaborate in the fierce line of fire. The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, then asked the volunteers to “immediately” the indications of the professionals who deal with these “complex” professionals. The Civil Guard has also made several appeals in the same direction. On this occasion, both the deceased and the injured partner were, however, members of an operation of the Junta de Castilla y León who had joined the extinction work from Soria.
In the last hours, other risk situations had occurred that, fortunately, had resulted in serious consequences. The driver of a bulldozer had to be rescued on Saturday in the zone of Cenza (Ourense) when being surrounded by the flames because of a change in the wind direction when he tried to create a short fires. The rescue, made by agents of the Civil Guard, was attended by air media that made several water discharges in the front of the fire to prevent the flames from continuing to progress and reach the operator.
