Tarifa wildfire finally extinguished after 12-day battle

According to the Junta’s Plan Infoca brigade, the fire that started on 5 April has provisionally affected some 44 hectares of land

Europa Press

Cadiz

Monday, 17 April 2023, 13:23

The Junta de Andalucía’s Plan Infoca team, the region’s specialist forest fire brigade, has finally declared the blaze burning in Tarifa (Cadiz province) extinguished this Monday, 17 April. The fire was originally declared in the Betis area of the Sierra de San Bartolomé on 5 April and after a 12-day battle it was reported to be fully out at 9.30am this morning.

Plan Infoca reported on its Twitter account, that the fire has provisionally affected some 44 hectares of land, specifically 32 hectares of wooded areas, nine of scrubland and three hectares of urban land.

The forest fire started on the Wednesday of Holy Week and it was not until Friday, 7 April when it was stabilised. After an intense weekend the fire was declared controlled at around 12 midday last Monday, 10 April.

Since then, teams continued to work to extinguish this fire, as hot spots appeared in the area, prolonging the period before Plan Infoca could confirm the fire was out.

The area affected by the fire was populated by dense vegetation, which prevented all the water dropped from the helicopters from reaching the ground, an aspect that complicated the extinction work, to which the easterly wind that hit the area in the early days was added.

The Junta de Andalucía activated Level One of Infoca’s emergency plan at 2.33am on Maundy Thursday, 6 April, which resulted in some 70 residents of the El Chaparral district being evacuated from the area as a precaution before being able to return to their homes two days later, when the fire was considered stabilised and the alert was deactivated.

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