Some 400 members of the Infoca and the Provincial Firefighters Consortium fought in the worst hours against a fire that cut a second connection road with Alhaurín el Grande
The fire declared last Friday in the vicinity of Mijas town remained active for the second night in a row. Not even the two amphibious planes with which the central government reinforced the extinction tasks late on Saturday allowed the flames to be controlled in any of the four zones of greatest progress.
The perimeter affected until twelve noon already amounted to about 1,900 hectares, with more than 3,000 people evicted from their homes. And although after the busiest hours the Board already figured in 400 troops of Infoca, Emergencies 112 and the Provincial Firefighters Consortium who worked on the ground, a “secondary focus” in the vicinity of the urban area of Alhaurín el Grande forced the closure of the road that connects this town with Mijas town.
This incident also forced the eviction of the population in the surroundings of that mountain road, next to Alhaurín Golf, El Chorro or the Puerto de Pescadores, as expressed by the acting Deputy Minister of the Presidency of the Board, Antonio Sanz. About the need for external reinforcements al Infoca, the regional authorities themselves underlined that due to the difficult orography of the land, the important thing was to have the maximum number of aerial means.
As for the evicted families, over the hours some 300 residents of Lauro Golf, in Alhaurín de la Torre, and another 300 from the upper part of Alhaurín el Grande, in La Paca, returned to their homes. In total, at the end of the night they remained evicted about 1,500 homes affectedof which a significant share corresponds to second homes or unoccupied accommodation.
The city councils figured in something more than 2,000 neighbors who still spent this second night out from their homes. In turn, the acting Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, Carmen Crespo, emphasized from the Advanced Command Post, located in the Alhaurín el Grande sports center, that some 90 people (80 from this municipality and a dozen of Alhaurín de la Torre) would spend the night in one of the sports halls set up in their respective towns.
The deputy director of the Infoca Provincial Operational Center, Alejandro Molina, recognized that in general the situation was much calmer after eight in the evening than in the hours of greatest incidence of heat. Thus he said that the Mijas area “has no active flame”. He reported that the one that borders the Pinos de Alhaurín de la Torre urbanization “we also continue to work. The work is effective, although much remains to be done“, he nuanced.
“The northern zone, that of Alhaurín el Grande, is a pretty quiet areawith few active frontsalthough it is true that we must continue to be careful”, he stressed. And in fact the day ended with two roads closed, the access road to Mijas from Alhaurín el Grande and, the one that was interrupted to traffic since the same Friday, the that unites this last locality, through the mountains, with Alhaurín de la Torre and Churriana.
adverse weather
The second day against this fire in the Sierra de Mijas was again marked by the lack of changes in wind conditions or that lack of moisture lamented by the technicians. Thus, up to four different sectors remained active.
Crespo once again insisted on the need to send a reassurance message citizens, in the sense that the 60 people who had spent the first night in the Alhaurín el Grande sports center itself were in “good condition”.
The operational and extinction directorate of the Infoca Plan authorized this Saturday night to return to their homes, from which they were evicted on Friday, specifically from four areas: those of the San Jorge, Ardalejos and La Chíchara urbanizations; as well as those of Alhaurín Golf, whose preventive evacuation was ordered on Saturday afternoon. Already during the afternoon-night from the Junta de Andalucía it was reported that the residents of some 120 buildings in the upper part of the La Paca urbanization, also in Alhaurín el Grande, had been allowed to return, specifically those in the area included between Camino de Ardalejos and the A-404.
As for the firefighters, There were no significant injuries or incidents., as the Board leader herself argued. After four in the afternoon, a contingent of seven heavy vehicles for extinction had to be added to the 15 aerial means displaced to the area. And at that point, the acting counselor wanted to thank all the administrations, including the central government with the bodies and security forces present, for the effort that has been deployed in one of the great environmental treasures that crown the nearest Costa del Sol to the capital of Malaga.
And he insisted that the origin of the fire declared shortly after noon on Friday in the area of El Higuerón, in the municipality of Mijas, is still unknown: “Work continues on the investigation of the causes of the firein order to know if there was negligence, it is a fortuitous event or if it has been provoked”.
On the other hand, the Andalusian leader herself highlighted the fact that these are days of many fires spread throughout the Peninsula (they have also spread to different regions of France) and thus wanted to send solidarity and help from her community “to all the workers” who fight against the flames in quite difficult and complex temperature conditions.
“We want to highlight the great coordination work, in unfavorable weather conditions” and Crespo insisted in the message requesting “patience, because everything possible is being done by virtue of what the technicians ask for”, he recounted in the presence of the Deputy Minister of the Presidency and the councilors of Alhaurín el Grande and Alhaurín de la Torre, respectively, Toñi Ledesma (PP) and Joaquín Villanova (PP).