Alex Trelinski
18 LARGE fires remain active in the Asturias, Castilla y Leon, and Galicia regions in northern Spain plus Extremadura in the west.
The figures were released on Thursday afternoon by the State Coordination Committee (CECOD).
It said the number of people evacuated from homes since August 12 has reached over 33,000, with over 403,000 hectares of land burnt.
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The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has confirmed that the weather forecast for the next few hours is favourable in all the affected areas- allowing progress in containing the blazes.
The fire at Jarilla (Caceres province) is close to being under control after burning over 16,000 hectares of land.
In Galicia, the situation ‘invites optimism’, according to the CECOD, though major fires are still in progress.
There is progress in Castilla y Leon, although a blaze in Fasgar has worsened due suspected arson.
Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who chaired Thursday’s CECOD meeting will visit Asturias on Friday to get a briefing on the Degaña forest fire.
Meanwhile the Castilla y Leon government has said it will cover rentals for families who have had to leave their homes due to the fire and need to live elsewhere until they are made habitable.
There’s been criticism from the main opposition party, the Partido Popular(PP) over the national government’s handling of the wildfire outbreaks.
The PP’s Deputy Secretary for Regional and Municipal Policy and Electoral Analysis, Elías Bendodo, accused the Civil Protection head, Virginia Barcones, of being just ‘one more arsonist’.
He called on the government to find out ‘once and for all that fires are not put out with ideology or tension but with collaboration and institutional loyalty.’
Bendodo was responding to Barcones who on Wednesday accused some regions affected by the fires and governed by the PP of having requested ‘impossible things’ in terms of collaboration from Madrid.
“The head of Civil Protection is supposed to be a professional who is supposed to talk about technical issues and how she has been able to collaborate or help in the extinction of fires,” Bendodo commented.
“She is one more arsonist who has dedicated herself to insulting regional governments. This is how it is impossible to solve the problems,” he added.
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