“It is no longer enough to be prepared only for the months of high risk,” says Vice President Ribera
Communities will now have five months to adapt their firefighting plans
The brutal wave of forest fires that have shaken Spain in recent weeks has shown the system deficiencies against fire, forcing the government to act. This year is already the worst in almost three decades in terms of area burned, with more than 200,000 hectares devastated by the flames Given the evidence that the fires are becoming more virulent and frequent (more than 6,000 have taken place so far this year), the Government approved this Monday a royal decree which fixes a minimum of services of extinction to the autonomies, also forcing them to have prevention and extinction plans throughout the year.
“We can no longer think that the fire season only occupies two or three months on our calendar,” said the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition after the Council of Ministers, Theresa Rivera. According to sources from his department, the new rule “expands the minimum content of the plans to establish the endowment, material means and equipment that must be available to workers who participate in prevention and extinction work & rdquor ;.
About a fortnight of fires continue right now active in the Iberian Peninsula, the majority in Castile and Leon, the autonomy most affected by the wave of fires, which has been spurred on by a heat wave that is also hardly unprecedented. The territory, ruled by the PP and Vox in coalition, has been criticized by the Executive for its present lack of means in the face of the flames. Last week, the Minister of Defense, Margaret Oaks, He addressed the community directly to ask them not to skimp “neither on means nor on personnel.”
the skills
Ribera did not mention any autonomy this Monday during the presentation of the decree law, which modifies the mountain law of 2003. The implementation of these measures will be unfeasible without the community collaboration, who have most of the firefighting skills and now have a five-month term to tailor your services.
“You have to be the whole year investing, activating the measures that allow us to prevent and reduce the impact of fires & rdquor ;, said the third vice president. “Bad preparation. puts the population at risk and it increases the economic and biodiversity losses – Ribera continued-. We should all have fire defense plans for the entire year. It’s no longer enough to be prepared just for the high-risk months. And we must be prepared to all the territory, not only for particularly vulnerable areas & rdquor ;.
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Last Friday, during the appearance to offer his summary of the political course, Pedro Sanchez It has already made clear the two main objectives of the royal decree. On the one hand, eliminate differences such as those that exist today between the firefighting services of some communities versus others”, reinforcing at the same time the coordination of all administrations against the flames. On the other, increase the time horizon of the prevention and extinction plans of the territories, which can no longer last, said the Prime Minister, “four or five months & rdquor ;, but the whole year, something that requires “increase capacities”.
The norm, they explain in Ecological Transition, “plans to establish a homogeneous rating of the extinguishing units according to their operational capacities, a common coordination protocol for the aerial media,adopt unambiguous radio signals and use common symbols to prepare operational maps”.