Oviedo, Apr 3 (EFE).- Hundreds of people have participated this afternoon in Oviedo in a rally organized by some twenty environmental groups from Asturias to denounce the lack of human and material resources for the prevention and extinction of forest fires.
Under the slogan “Asturias does not burn, they burn it”, the demonstrators have protested in front of the headquarters of the autonomous Government to reproach the Executive that the work of prevention, surveillance and investigation of these fires have been “ineffective in recent years”.
After concluding the worst wave of fires recorded in the community since 2017, environmental groups have warned of “the negligent and incompetent” management of the Principality, “which gives impunity to those who intend to burn the mountain.”
The protesters have stressed that, according to the “official statistics” of the Government of Asturias itself and the Environment Prosecutor’s Office, 80 percent of the fires in the autonomous community “have their origin in the generation of pastures.”
In addition, they have regretted that Asturias is the only community in which the areas devastated by forest fires are not limited to grazing and have warned that the new forest plan is committed to further increasing the area of eucalyptus and conifers, when they are trees that convert “The mount in a firebomb because of its high combustibility.”
Together with the environmental groups, several dozen firefighters from Asturias have also protested, who have started an indefinite strike this Monday to request a reorganization of the service and a greater staffing in the parks that allows the troops to work more safely.
The wave of fires, which began on March 23, has devastated some 11,000 hectares, according to the first estimates.
Up to 800 people worked with the help of dozens of land vehicles, two seaplanes and five helicopters to extinguish the fires, which forced the evacuation of nearly 400 people.
Given the improvement in the situation, the Government of the Principality yesterday downgraded the Forest Fire Plan of the Principality (Infopa) to the emergency phase in situation 0.