The strong north wind, which reached gusts of up to 108 km/h in Portbou, yesterday became the main enemy that the firefighters had to control a forest fire that broke out in the middle of the afternoon in this border municipality of the Alt Empordà and that at the end of this edition had already burned about 200 hectares, according to the latest count of the body of rural agents. A fire that was still active pushed by the wind and that did not allow the emergency services to be very optimistic. The fire chief, Santi Lleonart, anticipated that yesterday would be a "hard" and "long" night due to the "steep orography of the terrain" and the "intensity of the wind".
The fire forced the suspension of train traffic between Figueres and Portbou and traffic on the N-260, in both directions, in a stretch of about 15 kilometers between Llançà and the French border. It also forced the population of the neighboring town of Colera to be confined, a town towards which the smoke of a fire that started in the Portbou swamp environment was heading, in an area where pines and oaks abound, with a large mass of fuel. In addition, three families from Portbou, a total of eight residents, who live in farmhouses located on the path that leads to the swamp, were evicted by the Mossos d'Esquadra as a precaution. The City Council made the sports hall available so that those affected could spend the night there. At the close of this edition, no home was in danger.
The fire caught the Sant Miquel de Colera campsite customers by surprise, to whom the firemen and the Mossos d'Esquadra advised them to stay inside the bungalows, motorhomes and caravans. One of the receptionists of this tourist accommodation, full, as is logical on the 4th of August, explained yesterday around seven in the evening that shortly after the fire was declared they began to see ash falling on the premises campsite facilities. The residents of the Cala Rovellada urbanization, in Colera, located next to the sea, also had to be confined.
In total, more than seventy land resources and various air resources were mobilized, which had great difficulty in attacking the flames due to the strong gusts of wind and the headwinds generated by the fire itself, which caused a dozen secondary foci. In fact, during the entire afternoon none of the seaplanes were able to discharge any water. A dozen French vehicles also joined the extinguishing task to prevent the fire from crossing the border. The work of the more than 200 firefighters who were on the ground last night was focused on preventing the right flank, which was heading towards the Molinàs valley, from affecting more surface.
The north wind and the possibility of sudden changes in wind was what most worried the mayor of Portbou, Gael Rodríguez, and the firefighting teams. The forecasts were not very encouraging, as the wind was expected to increase in intensity and reach 80 km/h in the morning. The only plus point was the large area of cattle pasture north of Colera, which helped keep the flames from advancing so quickly.
