The Orense municipality of A Gudiña is experiencing moments of great tension these days, awaiting a fire that has already devastated more than 150 hectares. This fire, which was registered at 1:18 p.m. this Monday in the parish of Pentes, is now joined by another in the parish of Barxa, which broke out at midnight and which currently affects 60 hectares.
The alarms went off on Monday at noon, when Medio Rural received the report of a fire in Pentes. The flames spread rapidly and, by four in the afternoon, had already engulfed 50 hectares. This area multiplied in the space of two hours, when the Regional Executive reported that around 100 hectares of land had already been affected. After almost 12 hours, finally after midnight, the extinguishing services considered the fire stabilised, having burned, according to the latest estimates, 150 hectares. So far, 8 agents, 20 brigades, 9 motor pumps, 4 excavators, 2 technicians, 10 helicopters and 8 planes have been mobilised and continue to fight to control the flames.
To this must now be added another forest fire, which occurred at midnight in the same municipality. Barely ten minutes had passed since the stabilization of the one in the parish of Pentes was confirmed, when, at 00:17, another outbreak was reported in the parish of Barxa. According to the latest updates from Medio Rural, this fire has so far affected around 60 hectares, bringing the total number of land burned by the flames in A Gudiña to, according to initial data, 210 hectares. For the time being, the firefighting services are working to stabilize it.
“Everything indicates that this was provoked”
The municipality of Porto do Son, in A Coruña, also spent the night waiting for the flames, which caused “difficult hours” for residents due to their proximity to the houses of the parish of Caamaño. “There was a lot of wind and the fire was getting very close to the houses”, where the house of culture is located, the mayor, Luis Oujo, informed Ep. Although it was not necessary to evict anyone, he explained, “it was necessary to warn the neighbors so that they would be careful”. In fact, three cars from a workshop that “was to be scrapped” on an esplanade burned, he said.
Regarding the causes of the fire, which was recorded at 10:29 p.m., the mayor assured that “everything indicates that it was caused” when it broke out at night when there were no aerial resources, on a very hot day with strong winds. “I’m not sure, but everything suggests that they were caused”, because “here, the same thing always happens”. “A member of the brigade told me that he had discovered that there were two or three outbreaks”, even if “they were not large outbreaks”. It was only after four in the morning that the firefighters were able to consider the outbreak stabilised, when it had already ravaged around fifteen hectares.
