THE fire which started last Thursday afternoon, September 8, in Los Guajares, and has now razed through 3,000 hectares of land, is believed to be a human-caused wildfire.

According to members of the Forest Fire Investigation Brigade (BIIF), the exact point at which the fire started has been identified.

Specifically, at a spot few centimeters from a particular curve in the road linking the villages of Guajar Faragüit and Guajar Alto.

As stated by Antonio Aguilar, head of the BIIF in Granada, natural causes such as lightning or any similar phenomenon have been ruled out as the cause of this currently ongoing fire in Granada.

However, Aguilar and his team, who are currently preparing a report on the incident, are yet to decide whether the origin is intentional or the result of the negligence of a person passing through the area.

So far, the total perimeter of this fire is about 35-37 kilometers and has mainly affected groves, scrub and pastures, as well as some agricultural and olive grove areas.

Though the out-of-control wildfire has blazed for over four days, with the smoke plume visible from the capital of the province more than 40 kilometers away, only a total of 16 people have left their homes preventively in different parts of the municipality of Los Guajares (10) and around the core of Pinos del Valle (6).

Despite the possibility of rain these coming days, the INFOCA firefighting service have indicated that it will still take ‘several days’ without specifying how many, before the fire can be considered controlled.

READ MORE:

Subscribe to the Olive Press

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.