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This year's Forest Campaign, which ended on September 30, has not been an easy task. Firefighters from the Generalitat have fought only one large forest fire, in Portbou, at the beginning of August, although during the rest of the season they had to face fires of great potential. The structural drought and consolidated climate change, which extends the threat of fire beyond the summer months, predicted the worst.
However, the campaign has ended with good results. "We have once again successfully overcome a very difficult forestry campaign thanks to the emergency forces, volunteers and collective responsibility," summarized the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena i Garcia, during the presentation of the campaign's balance sheet.
Since January 1, 530 forest fires have started that have burned a total of 1,566 hectares, a figure almost five times lower than last year (6,803 hectares) and half that of 2021 (3,022 hectares).
During the Forest Campaign, between June 1 and September 30, 230 forest fires occurred in Catalonia, affecting an area of 713 hectares. Both in number of fires and surface area, it is the seventh best year in the last fifteen. If the average number of hectares burned in the last five years is taken into account (3,310 ha/year), the figure for 2023 is almost five times lower.
If the figures for fires of more than one hectare in 2023 are compared with the historical average since 1986, half have occurred: 66 fires this year, when the historical average is 131.
25% of this year's fires (55) have originated from natural causes, while human action has intervened in the rest. Specifically, 50 (22.6% of the total) were caused by negligence and 47 (21.27%) were intentional. Traditionally, 90% of fires involve human intervention, a percentage that this year has dropped slightly, to 75%. "It is a good indication that there is increasing citizen awareness," Elena said.
The councilor stressed that "the security and emergency forces have demonstrated exceptional courage and capacity. The application of intelligence in operations, coordination and determination have been crucial to protect our populations," he explained.
The head of the Interior also wanted to highlight the role of the Rural Agents and the Fire Department of the Generalitat: “We will continue to allocate more resources and means by making annual calls, extending the Summer Campaign by one month and increasing the budget of these general directorates by more of 30 million euros".
The Department of the Interior extended the Summer Campaign by one month, from June 1 to September 30, starting it fifteen days earlier than usual and ending fifteen days later. This change is caused by the context of climate change, which in recent years has increased the number of days considered critical and with greater risk of forest fire.
The campaign also debuted with an improvement in the procedure for determining protection measures for the population to guarantee safety in urbanizations in the event of a forest fire. This procedure has further improved coordination between Firefighters (who establishes confinement and evacuation orders), the order group (who executes them) and the Civil Protection population warning system.
It is also necessary to assess the coordination and collaboration between Firefighters and the Forest Defense Groups (ADF) in the forest fires that occurred in this campaign. With the active participation of the ADF in its first intervention in many fire outbreaks and also complying with existing safety procedures in active fires.
