Oviedo, Apr 9 (EFE).- The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has joined today with 60 troops and 23 vehicles the tasks of extinction of the fire declared yesterday in Las Regueras, near Oviedo, the most worrisome in the eight that today remain active in Asturias, where there are another 22 fires under review.
A seaplane from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge will also be incorporated throughout the morning to support the firefighters from La Morgal, Pravia, Grado and Poraza who have traveled to the area, together with personnel from a forestry cooperative .
Everything indicates that this fire, which is affecting well-managed pine and eucalyptus forests that had never burned until now, has been intentional since, according to some witnesses, the fire started almost at the same time at three different points distant from each other. .
The fire, which threatened to reach some houses in the towns of Soto, Bolgues and Pereda, as well as Ablanosa, located in the neighboring municipality of Candamo, has caused a visible smoke from the Asturian capital, which is located a few kilometers from this fire.
To coordinate the device, a command post has been established in Puerma (Las Regueras), to where the President of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, plans to travel throughout the morning to see first-hand the evolution of this and the rest of fires.
The extinction, in principle, is being favored by the absence of wind so, according to the Minister of the Presidency, Rita Camblor, this new episode of fires is less worrying than the one registered between March 23 and the beginning of April, which It ended with some 20,000 burned hectares, according to the first calculations.
Valdés, the council most affected by this wave of fires, presents this Sunday three active fires -Riopinoso, Biescas and Ferrera- in which firefighters from the municipality, Barres and Tineo work, and another five sources under review in Canero, Enverniego, Fontoria, Meras and San Cristóbal.
In eastern Asturias, the fire declared yesterday in Ribadesella continues, as well as the one in Següenco, in Cangas de Onís, while at the other end of the community, in Cangas del Narcea, there are two fires, in Rubial and San Pedro de the Mountain, who are being watched by the nursery.
Twenty-two fires are also being reviewed by agents of the Principality in Valdés (5), Piloña (2), Grado (2), Allande (2), Tineo (2) Cabrales, Illano, Laviana, Llanes, Onís, Parres , Quirós, Teverga and Villayón.
Asturias has kept alert level 2 of the Principality’s Fire Protection Plan (INFOPA) activated since yesterday, which is launched when fire can seriously affect the population and the help of extraordinary means is necessary.
In fact, throughout Saturday the Principality’s own extinguishing services were reinforced with the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF) of Asturias, Cantabria and León, although only the latter’s means were operational at nightfall.
The Principality had placed INFOPA in phase zero last Sunday, due to weather conditions that helped put an end to a wave of fires that has led the Asturian Government to announce regulatory changes, such as the extension of the security strip between towns and the tree masses whose clearing is currently set at 75 meters and which is intended to be doubled.
The risk of forest fires being declared in Asturias is today “extreme” in 30 councils in the southwest, mountains, Picos de Europa and part of the eastern coast, while it will remain “very high” in another 41 municipalities of the Principality of Asturias.
The seven councils at the westernmost end of the Principality will be the only ones that will remain at “high” risk, according to the indicator prepared daily by the General Directorate of Rural and Forest Infrastructures.
