The Pinofranqueado fire in Cáceres has already devastated 1600 hectares of pine forest and has forced the evacuation of 700 people

This Tuesday, a new forest fire has been declared in Spain, this time in the municipality of Pinofranqueado, in the Las Hurdes region (Cáceres). This fire has already devastated 1,600 hectares of pine forest, according to the first estimates from the Junta de Extremadura, which for now maintains operational situation 2 of the Special Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fires.

Also, about 700 people have had to be evacuated from the hamlets of Horcajo, Avellanar, Erías, Castillo, El Gasco, Martilandrán, Aldehuela, La Fragosa, Robledo, and Cerezal. These evacuated people have been transferred to the ‘Gregorio Marañón’ student residence in Caminomorisco. The charitable center that houses people with severe disabilities, Cottolengo, has also been evacuated. 34 people were transferred from this center to the Sociosanitary Center of Plasencia and the Hermanitas de los Pobres center.

During this night, 150 personnel have worked on the ground, in a deployment made up of thirteen forest fire units, four heavy machinery units, four Natural Environment agents plus five extinction technicians. And together with the Infoex Plan, personnel from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) have joined, as well as resources from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco), firefighters from the Provincial Council of Cáceres (Sepei), Civil Guard, and personnel from the Forest Fire service of Castilla y León (InfoCyL).

Last night, around 10:45 PM, the first meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) of the Infocaex Plan took place, presided over by the plan director and vice president, Minister of the Presidency, Coordination of Government Action, Interior and Emergencies, Abel Bautista. This same Wednesday at 10:00 AM, the second meeting took place.

The mayor of Pinofranqueado, José Luis Azabal, has communicated to the media that, "we are talking about there being no storm yesterday, there have been no lightning strikes, so we have to talk about it being an intentional fire," he expressed, before adding that the fire originated around 2:30 PM and that time, "is not a very usual time for fires in Las Hurdes," the mayor believes. "Let's hope that with this we learn something and change forest policy, especially in the Las Hurdes region, because it cannot be that every year we have the same movie, with fires and evacuated neighbors, which is a tragedy," Azabal concluded.