It was a relatively quiet summer in terms of firefighting. Helped greatly by abundant rains in June and July, virtually no major fires were recorded at the start of Galicia’s summer fire campaign. But August came along and darkened the statistics: five major outbreaks in the eighth month of the year, which They devastated a total of 230 hectares, Several municipalities in the province of Orense and also Pontevedra stood out.
During the months of June and September, practically no fires were reported in the Autonomous Community, according to data from the Department of Rural Affairs compiled by Europa Press. In addition, the few that were recorded were of little importance. However, August brought up the summer average, with three major fires in the province of Orense and two more in Pontevedra. The largest of these was recorded on August 23 in the municipality of A Gudiña (Orense). The largest fire of the summer in the Autonomous Community burned, before it could be extinguished, a total of 75 hectares. It had started in the parish of Pentes, around 5:30 p.m., but ended up also affecting the parishes of San Lázaro and Erosa.
The fire in A Gudiña was brought under control fairly quickly and did not affect the towns. Again, forced the closure of a road for several hours to avoid fears due to its proximity to the fire.
Another major fire recorded in Galicia in August was the one that affected the town of San Cristovo de Cea, also in the province of Orense, on the 20th. It burned nearly 60 hectares after starting in the parish of Oseira around 4:24 p.m. that day. In any case, this fire in the poBlación Orensana, despite being one of the most important in the countryside in Galicia, has never represented a direct problem for the neighbors and their homes.
The population centers affected by the fire in San Cristovo de Cea, as the mayor of the city, José Luis Valladares, explained to Ep at the time, were “quite far away” from the outbreak. From the beginning, the mayor insisted, the situation was “relatively controlled.”
As a curiosity, in the fight against fires in this city of Orense, commanded by the extinguishing services of the Department of Rural Affairs, A team of Estonian firefighters also took part, who are in training, and for whom this was their first experience in the fight against this scourge. These twenty Estonian firefighters have been in Galicia for about fifteen days.
Although the aforementioned fire in San Cristovo de Cea was quickly brought under control, a week later it hit the city of Orense again. This time the fire affected about 30 hectares. The Xunta then confirmed that this fire, which broke out after 5:20 p.m., It was a reproduction of the one that had been recorded seven days earlier. The Ministry of Rural Environment declared it off a few minutes after 9:30pm on Friday.
Five technicians, 23 agents, 30 brigades, 31 motor pumps, two excavators, eight planes and seven helicopters participated in the extinguishing work. In addition, the aforementioned Estonian firefighter teams collaborated, which completed their journey through the Galician lands this Saturday.
Pontevedra
As for the province of Pontevedra, on August 16, a fire was reported in Ponteareas, specifically in the parish of Paredes, which In the end, this affected just over 40 hectares, according to estimates from the Ministry of Rural Affairs. In any case, even if August far exceeds the areas devastated by fires compared to the rest of the summer, it is still far from the figures for April, a month in which nearly 450 hectares of forest land burned throughout the region.
