Junta's head highlights effectiveness of Infoca in reducing 80% of wildfires this year to minor outbreaks
The surface area affected across the Andalucía region amounted to some 6,327 hectares, representing just 1% of the total area burned nationwide after a devastating summer of wildfires in Spain
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, highlighted earlier this week the high effectiveness of Plan Infoca, the region's forest firefighting service, which reduced 80% of the wildfires that have broken out this year to small-scale outbreaks, therefore minimising the area affected by the flames in these incidents to less than one hectare per incident.
The head of Andalucía's regional government took stock of the fires in the region this year after the high-risk season ended in late October, highlighting the "rapid and effective response" of this emergency response brigade despite adverse factors such as the extremely high temperatures recorded this summer, with two very prolonged heatwaves.
Moreno estimated the total area affected by the flames at 6,327 hectares, which is only 1% of the area burned nationwide, where many have lived through a tragic summer with devastating fires, especially in Castilla y León and Galicia.
Of the area burned in Andalucía, the majority, 4,669 hectares, were pasture and scrubland, while the remaining 1,658 hectares were woodland and forest. This means that this year's figure is 2,618 hectares less than the average for the decade across the region, which stands at 8,945 hectares, a figure that shows the reduced impact of the fires and the effectiveness of the response by this firefighting service.
In total, Infoca's brigades have carried out 876 interventions in forest areas, of which 182 were actual wildfires and 694 were outbreaks, none of which affected more than one hectare.
Moreno gave this assessment after chairing the meeting of Infoca Plan's regional advisory committee held at Madroñalejo's forest defence centre (Cedefo) in Aznalcóllar (Seville), one of the 23 operational facilities in Andalucía that house the resources, personnel and equipment of this forest fire prevention and control plan.
Moreno announced that this year will see the completion of the plan to extend the contracts of all seasonal workers to 12 months, "a long-standing demand of our forest firefighters, agreed upon with the unions for implementation over three years, but which we will fulfil in just two years with a significant financial commitment that our professionals deserve," he stressed. He also announced that two new operational units will be created within Infoca: a heavy machinery unit and a technical fire unit.
Finally, he noted that this year's campaign had to be extended by 16 days, running until 31 October due to delayed autumn rainfall and high temperatures in October. However, he emphasised that Infoca operates year-round and also carries out prevention and conservation work in forest areas.
