Firefighters were fighting several forest fires in different regions of Spain on Thursday, tasks that were complicated by an unusual heat wave that reached its sixth day with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in various parts of the country.
The most worrying fire is located near Baldomar, in the province of Lérida (Catalonia, northeast), where the fire has already burned 940 hectares, according to figures from the Catalan government, which estimated that it has the “potential” to destroy up to 20,000.
Although, at the moment, there are no people evacuated, the authorities confined some nearby populated areas as a preventive measure, the AFP news agency reported.
Two other forest fires were active in Catalonia, in Solsonés (Lérida) and in Tierra Alta (Tarragona), each with some 300 hectares burned, the Catalan government said in a statement.
“We enter the most complicated hours in terms of the evolution of the three large active fires” in Catalonia, said the head of the Interior of the regional government, Joan Elena.
To fight the flames, 62 ground vehicles and eight aerial vehicles were mobilized, the firefighters specified, and the efforts were joined by members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME).
Precisely in Lleida, temperatures of up to 41 degrees are expected for this Thursday, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), which also warned of temperatures above 40 degrees in Badajoz (southwest) and Zaragoza (northeast).
At 13 local time (7 in Argentina), the Aemet registered maximum temperatures of 40.6 degrees in Granada and 40.4 in Andújar (Jaén), both in Andalusia (south).
Another fire was declared in the Sierra de la Culebra, in Zamora (Castilla y León, center), where members of the UME and three helicopters were fighting the flames, reported the Junta de Castilla y León, the regional government.
In Navarra (north), firefighters managed to control two other forest fires last night, indicated the regional emergency services this morning.
This early heat wave in Spain, which began last weekend, left unusual spring temperatures of up to 43 degrees in various parts of the country and will continue until this Saturday.
Spain already suffered a heat wave last May, the hottest so far this century, according to the Aemet.
The multiplication of heat waves, particularly in Europe, is a consequence of global warming, according to scientists, for whom greenhouse gas emissions increase the power, duration and repetition of these phenomena.
