Infoca switches to ‘offensive operations’ in Los Gallardos fire, which has already spread to 6,600 hectares

This was stated by the Andalusian Minister for Health and Emergencies for the Andalusian regional government, Antonio Sanz, who explained that with the wind having died down in the area and relative humidity having risen, an “extraordinary window of opportunity” has opened up to tackle the fire.

So far, as the minister explained, work has largely consisted of "defensive" measures in the face of the fire’s rapid advance, meaning that this Saturday it will be possible to tackle it directly "for the first time".

"Both the weather conditions and the nature of the fire itself have, until now, simply meant that we have been able to work defensively," he said.

On the ground, the operation is on a massive scale. A total of 500 firefighters are working in a coordinated manner to extinguish the fires.

This team comprises 200 professionals from the Infoca service, closely supported by a further 200 military personnel from the Military Emergency Unit (UME), members of the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF) from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, and firefighters from the Levante Fire Service.

In the air, reinforcements have been arriving steadily since early Saturday morning. Initially, four aircraft - two helicopters and planes - took off at eight o’clock this morning, with two further helicopters joining them an hour later. The operation maintains a fleet of 22 aircraft ready to be deployed in stages according to the needs of the operations committee.

One of the key achievements of the last few hours has taken place on the A7 motorway. Specialists from Infoca’s technical fire unit - one of the new operational initiatives in this year’s campaign - carried out controlled tactical burning in the early hours of the morning, creating an artificial firebreak and successfully preventing the flames from spreading to the road.

Thanks to the effectiveness of these ‘fire-against-fire’ manoeuvres, the Andalusian authorities were able to reopen the A7 motorway to traffic in the early hours of the morning, restoring some normality to transport links in the area and facilitating the safe passage of emergency vehicles.

The regional government’s optimism has also been bolstered by the stabilisation of the other major fire that has been threatening the municipality of Benahavís. This has made it possible to free up resources and focus attention on the major blaze that is keeping the region on tenterhooks.

However, caution continues to prevail at the forward command post. Although the outlook is considerably better than it was on Friday, the regional government points out that the fire remains on a large scale and that the coming hours will be crucial in bringing it under definitive control.