The situation of the fires that has improved this Saturday. Throughout tomorrow, the number of active levels of level 2 has declined from 16 to 13, and only one of them evolves unfavorably. It is the fire of the Igüeña, in León, where the orography hinders the access of terrestrial teams of extinction in the most active front, the north. In Cáceres, the Jarilla fire since Friday morning, but the cooling work of the 17,300 hectares that have been calcined to definitely give it by extinguished continues. The situation also improves in Galicia. His most devastating fire in history, that of Larouco (Ourense) has stabilized at 11.30 in the morning after razing 30,000 hectares. The Vilaboa (Pontevedra) has gone to the operational situation 0. Those of Peres and Barniedo de la Reina, both in León, have evolved in a favorable way and also that of Porto, in Zamora.
Some populations that were evacuated have begun to be real. This is the case of Peñalba de Santiago (León), where the neighbors have been able to return to their homes, although they will have to remain confined, after the situation of the Flames de Cabrera fire improved. While that happens, residents of six other distances have had to provisionally leave their homes. There are still 838 people evacuated in total in 14 villages and another 235 confined in 11 locations, according to official data.
At noon on Saturday, seven fires were taken for controlled. Another three were stabilized, that is, that they have already been perimeter and that, although reactivation irrigation exists, they will foresee themselves shortly. Meanwhile, 13 active fires are maintained in operational situation 2, in which they are intervening displaced troops from different autonomous communities and European countries mobilized through the European Civil Protection system.
The General Director of Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, said that no autonomous community has requested to raise the level of pre -emergency, which she declared on August 12, to the emergency of national level, which would have transferred to the Ministry of Interior the management of the fires of Galicia, Castilla y León, Extremadura and, to a lesser extent, Asturias. He does it in response to the message sent by the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, on August 17 to “discuss” the statement of emergency of national interest. According to the regulations, the statement of emergency of national interest corresponds “to the head of the Ministry of Interior”, which can do so on their own initiative and at the request of the autonomous communities or the Government delegates in the regions.
Barcones has been the target of harsh criticism by the PP during the last days, but this Saturday he has avoided responding to the statements of popular leaders who called it “pyrocanaly.” “The obvious is not commented,” has been his response to attacks. “All Spain has seen what has happened,” he said. Barcones, who has shown “moderate optimism” for the evolution of fires, has insisted that it will not allow the work of professionals who participate in the extinction operation to be questioned.
