IPCC Spain report, climate change 'hot spot'
The grief of Ritsopi Panayiota, an 81-year-old woman forced to leave her home threatened by flames on the island of Euboea, has become the image of the tragic fires that Greece is suffering this summer.
This old woman dressed in mourning could well have been Spanish.
The extreme heat situation experienced by our Mediterranean neighbors has already reached our country, which is currently at extreme risk of forest fires.
The situation is worrying to such an extent that the Generalitat of Catalonia has prohibited access to natural spaces in 279 municipalities in 24 regions. Until Monday, you will not be able to camp or play sports in the mountains. A measure that failed to prevent a fire from breaking out on Thursday in La Pobla de Massaluca (Tarragona) that forced a campsite to be evacuated preventively and that has affected 33 hectares of the protected natural area of the Tossals d'Almatret i Riba-Roja.
"We are expectant and very concerned because the situation will progressively worsen until Sunday,
temperatures will continue to rise and with it the water stress in the vegetation that also increases its combustibility", Raúl de la Calle Santillana, Secretary General of the Official College of Forest Technical Engineers.
To the problems that Spain drags every summer - structural, such as rural abandonment and the lack of forest management, and meteorological due to high temperatures and low rainfall - are added this year Filomena's tail blows. "Undoubtedly the situation is more worrying because the heavy snowfall affected the entire center of the peninsula, causing a large fall of branches and trees that have not been removed from our mountains. If it has been difficult to remove them from the cities, imagine how little has been done in the field. And
those branches have become fuel that has been completely dry
. Any spark can start a fire, and that is why we asked in due course that areas of urgent action be declared, "he says.
The risk of fires is not the only problem that Filomena has brought to the fields: "The accumulation of dead biomass favors the proliferation of pests. The boring insects
Tomicus
and
Ips
take advantage of the weak moments of a tree and dead branches to reproduce and feed, "he warns.
According to this forestry engineer,
"what most predisposes to a major catastrophe is the state of the natural environment
, which, as a general rule, is not well managed in Spain. The most dangerous places are those in which they have abandoned agricultural and livestock practices, and activities such as collecting firewood.
The forest area in our country is growing every year, but in a chaotic way ".
For this reason, he considers that "despite the fact that
Spain has excellent means of extinction,
the mistake of not investing in forest management has been made. There is no community in which you can affirm that it is being done well. It is neither managed nor invested , preventive measures in a natural space are seen as an expense ", he criticizes.
"Of 95% of the fires very few people find out because they do not burn a hectare. We call them attempts. And this happens because of the success of the means of extinction that exist in Spain, which have a very high effectiveness. But when
there are fires Simultaneously, large fires that are very difficult to control can be unleashed. "
For this reason, this expert considers that "if there are simultaneous fires, Spain could suffer a situation as dramatic as the Greek one", he assures.
"What Greece is experiencing now are many simultaneous fires, a different situation from the one suffered in 2018 in Attica, when more than a hundred people died," he says.
"
Greece has a natural environment similar to ours and forest management is not done either. The difference is that we have very important means of extinction
but when there are fires with certain characteristics, you cannot do anything other than wait for the weather conditions to be more favorable to act ".
As examples, he mentions the wave of simultaneous fires that the north of Spain suffered in December 2015, or the fire that destroyed 12,000 hectares in Gran Canaria in 2019 and forced the evacuation of more than 9,000 people.
It also shows its concern about the situation in communities such as the Balearic Islands, "there are urbanizations in the middle of forest areas that in case of fire could have difficulties to be evacuated. There are prevention plans but they are not implemented because in Spain there is still no one risk culture against forest fire. It seems that it is not going to happen to us, "he denounces.
In Spain there is still no risk culture against forest fire.
It seems that it will not happen to us
Raúl de la Calle Santillana, forestry engineer
For this reason, he considers that "it is true that Spain may have its particular Greek tragedy. Practically one year in and another not, we suffer serious fires in Spain or Portugal. It is also happening in North Africa, in Algeria there are already 67 deaths from the wave of fires these days ", sums up this engineer, who acknowledges that
the scenario ahead of us" is scary. "
"Let's keep our fingers crossed so that a spark doesn't jump anywhere," he adds.
"Although we dropped to 32 degrees next week, the risk will continue to exist until the water falls."
It is also very important that temperatures drop at night, "because in many places on the Peninsula it is up to 25 degrees and that increases the danger index."
14 major fires in 2021
So far this year, Spain has already suffered 14 large fires (those that burn more than 500 hectares) that have destroyed a total of about
40,000 hectares
.
The last one occurred a few days ago in El Tiemblo (Ávila) and destroyed
733 hectares.
The most serious devastated 3,088 hectares in Arico (Tenerife) in May and was intentional.
"There is an open investigation in a very advanced state that the Cabildo de Tenerife and SEPRONA have carried out jointly," says the engineer.
The forestry engineer emphasizes that man is behind nine out of ten forest fires, either intentionally or accidentally. "That is why we are very concerned on weekends, when people tend to go out to the fields more.
Unfortunately, common sense is not abundant and you have to put up signs not to throw cigarette butts from the car
.
"
However, he emphasizes that the main cause of man-made fires are poor agricultural and livestock practices, "particularly in communities in the north and northwest of the peninsula such as Galicia, León and Zamora," he points out.
"There is a deep-rooted culture of fire to clean the area and provide the best pasture for livestock. It is not prohibited, it is legal if permission is obtained but the necessary preventive measures are not always taken," he says.
In Asturias and Cantabria, brush burns to generate pasture for cattle usually occur from January to March.
Arsonists and arsonists
An arsonist is not the same as an arsonist, although these terms are sometimes used in the wrong way: "Arsonists are mentally ill who do fire because they enjoy it but they represent only between 1 and 2% of fires. An arsonist is who burns for a reason, not for a psychological problem ", clarifies De la Calle.
"For example, the fire that took place on Tuesday in Tolbaños (Ávila) was caused by the sparks that jumped during braking tests on a train, which should not have been done now," he says.
In Spain, there are two regions, the Valencian Community and Aragon, in which lightning is most important in the generation of fires.
"
For natural causes (lightning), at the national level there are 4-5% of fires (this data for example in the Valencian Community is 25%, reaching 40% some year).
On the other hand, De la Calle denounces the precarious situation in which the personnel who extinguish fires in Spain work, for which he demands better conditions: "Our forest firefighters need greater recognition, both socially and economically. It cannot be that they risk their lives and many of them earn a thousand euros a month and have great job instability. When they are not putting out fires, they are carrying out prevention tasks that require great physical effort and which is also done with very high temperatures ".
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Science and Health
science
Environment
HBPR
Environment Unesco tug of ears to Spain for the overexploited aquifers of Doñana
BiocontrolFight between bacteria to fight Ebola in olive trees
Climate Emergency: Hundreds of protesters call on Boris Johnson for action with 100 days to go to the Glasgow Climate Summit
See links of interest
Last News
Work calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Master data new narratives