Andalusian forest fire consumes over 3,000 hectares, requiring aerial reinforcement

112 incident

The regional government has raised the emergency in Huelva to level 2

CPS

A forest fire broke out this Monday afternoon in Villanueva de los Castillejos (Huelva). Since then, the situation has become increasingly difficult, prompting aerial and ground reinforcement and the evacuation of nearly 300 people.

On Wednesday morning, the fire forced the deployment of soldiers from the military emergency unit (UME) from Seville to boost firefighting efforts.

This followed the regional minister of emergencies' announcement at midnight that the regional government had raised the emergency plan to operational level 2. The spreading fire, which has already consumed more than 3,000 hectares, required military assistance.

Strong gusts of wind have been exacerbating the situation, exceeding risk predictions. In addition, there is a possibility of the wind changing direction on Wednesday.

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• Safety and security

  • fire prompted the deployment of a total of 22 aircraft, including helicopters and planes. On the ground, the firefighting efforts included five fire engines, a bulldozer and a team of 140 people.

    Meanwhile, in statements to Canal Sur Radio, Sanz explained that the fire is "very difficult" to extinguish due to the combination of strong winds with gusts of up to 40km/h and a "high fuel load" of fine scrubland that burned at a rate of "100 hectares per hour" in the first six hours, leading to over 2,000 hectares consumed by late Monday.