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Firefighters in the Region of Murcia were called out to put out no fewer than 14 different forest fires in the evening of this Wednesday June 18, all of them caused by lightning strikes.

 

The first call came through of lightning having sparked a blaze at 7.51pm in the area of Las Moratillas in the municipality of Yecla and the last one was in the Peña del Águila, in Cartagena.

 

In total, the fire alerts were in Yecla (Las Moratillas), Totana (Cuerda de Campix), Mazarrón (Rambla del Mojón), Jumilla (Barranco de Villena and Sierra del Carche, Paraje Los Lomazos), Alhama de Murcia (El Berro), Fortuna (Paraje de la Cueva Negra, La Serratilla), Lorca (Rambla de las Señoritas, La Pineda and Sierra del Pericay), Cieza (Barranco del Apio), Cehegín (El Chaparral), Cartagena (Peña del Águila) and Caravaca de la Cruz (Sierra de Mojantes).

 

Thankfully, the experienced and professional firefighters were able to put out all the flames when they were still in their infancy, before they turned into larger, more dangerous wildfires.

 

The first forest fire of the wildfire season in Murcia was the Wednesday before, June 11, when 1,600 square metres of scrubland were burnt up in Albudeite.

 

The good news is that it seems that the ‘Malla ECO’ forest fire surveillance network in Murcia is doing its job properly, identifying summer wildfires when they first break out and deploying fire crews to extinguish them before they can escalate.

 

The tinder dry conditions of the hot summer, combined with the increased vegetation growth due to the spring rains before, forest fires are expected to be particularly prevalant and widespread in Spain this summer. With any luck, though, we will be able to avoid the worst effects of the fires and be able to stamp them out before they can cause too much destruction, as Murcia’s firefighters have done this week.

 

Image: Unidad de Defensa contra los Incendios Forestales