The Government allocates 115 million euros for an anti -capital campaign that this year is expected to be more complicated | Spain
The Government approved on Tuesday in the Council of Ministers the Plan for prevention and fight against forest fires of 2025, For which an investment of 115.8 million euros has been allocated, as announced by Pilar Alegría, the Executive spokesman. This game, « more important than the previous year, » according to the minister, will be allocated especially to the prevention and cleaning actions. « The rapid response contingent is maintained, in this case, by the Emergency Military Unit (UME), with more than 1,400 troops, more than 70 aerial means and the deployment of the reinforcement brigades in forest fires, » he said.
This action plan, which involves 10 ministries, dedicates 70.3 million euros to cleaning the margins of roads and 45.5 million in the railway network managed by ADIF, a public entity that depends on the Ministry of Transportation. They will continue, like last summer, the agents of the UM and a state fleet of 14 turns off, together with 63 aircraft coordinated by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, as the government has later detailed in a press release.
The campaign against this 2025 began on June 1, 15 days before the usual date. The weather conditions for the beginning of June, as well as the level of humidity of the fuel, have made a more complicated season foresee, with higher temperatures and an increase in forest mass after the intense rainy season.
Forest fires affected summer past At 47,711 hectares, the lowest figure since 2018. Despite this, five people lost their lives as a consequence of fire, one of them an integral of the extinction teams, and 48 injured were recorded; Among them, 18 members of the extinction teams. 6,600 people were evacuated, and the most affected municipality was Ontinyent (36,430 inhabitants, Valencia) in which there were about 1,500 evicted, according to the balance that the Director of Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones, at the end of May. A total of 306 people were arrested or investigated.
16 large forest fires (GIF) were counted, which are those that affect more than 500 hectares, and representing 35% of the total burned area. Extremadura was the most affected community, with five GIF, followed by Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha, with three.
The state device complements the media of the Autonomous Communities, which are the ones who have fire management competition. Among other resources includes reinforcement brigades in forest fires (BRIF) and the large -capacity hydroprophions fleet of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, operated by the 43 Air and Space Army Group. It also has the UME, the Ministry of Defense, and the operational groups that National Police, Civil Guard and the General Directorate of Traffic organize in each specific fire.
The proximity of urban areas with the mountain increases the risk of the so -called forest urban interface fires, in which homes and other infrastructure can be damaged. Last year, nine forest fires caused damage to these constructions.
