Major forest fire in Casares is stabilised but continues to burn

A forest fire was declared at around 5pm this Tuesday (23 July) in the Sierra Crestellina area, in the municipality of Casares in Malaga province, according to the Junta de Andalucía's specialist Plan Infoca brigade.

Given its evolution, the Junta de Andalucía activated the regional government's Forest Fire Emergency Plan in the pre-emergency phase, operational situation 0, at around 7pm. This phase is activated in those wildfire situatons that are not expected to cause, in principle, significant risk to the population, but whose evolution is uncertain.

At its height, around 170 professionals, 16 aircraft and four heavy fire-fighting vehicles were sent to the area in an effort to stabilise the wildfire. At around 10.30pm, the Advanced Command Post confirmed that the fire had been contained, although it was still active in a difficult-to-access area.

As night fell, the air resources withdrew, but the ground teams continued with their work, specifically 170 forest firefighters, eight operations technicians, three firefighting technicians, two environmental agents, four fire trucks, two crews, a bulldozer and three units: meteorology and transmissions, medical and analysis and fire monitoring, respectively.

The forest fire that broke out on Tuesday afternoon has now been stabilised. Plan Infoca announced this on the social network X at 11.45am this Wednesday. “With temperatures close to 27C at the moment and expecting to reach 31 degrees at midday, our aerial resources have been working since this morning to cool the area to facilitate its control,” the specialist wildfire brigade said.

The mayor of Casares, Juan Luis Villalón, told SUR that "the first hour was the most critical, but as soon as the resources arrived the situation improved."

According to Villalón, a house where a couple and two dogs lived had been evacuated. During the afternoon, a dozen people were also temporarily evacuated from several houses in the Camino de la Alquita area.

The fire started in an area south of the Sierra Crestellina called La Rifa, near the entrance to La Arquita. "This area has pine forests and it was more worrying because it is close to the town centre," he explained.

The council leader has assured that several houses have been evacuated as a precaution "due to the smoke" and pointed out that it is not an area with a high population density so "there is no danger at all for now".

"In the last 45 minutes the situation has improved a lot and it is hoped that before nightfall they will be able to control it," he added in relation to the evolution of the fire.

Yesterday, another forest fire broke out in the ​​Nagüeles area of Marbella at around 5.15pm. Around 100 professionals, 14 aircraft and four heavy fire-fighting vehicles worked at the height of the blaze. Both the Marbella fire brigade and Malaga's provincial brigade worked alongside Plan Infoca crews to control the blaze. The fire, which affected 44.9 hectares of grass and scrubland (provisional measurements), was declared extinguished at 2.30pm today.