Catalan firefighters have finally stabilized the huge wildfire that has destroyed around 6,000 hectares of forest and vegetation in the last four days. The fire, which has raged across the interior county of Ribera d'Ebre in southern Catalonia, has been declared to be fully under control on Saturday night, with the final help of an overnight rise in relative humidity. In parallel, the record-breaking heatwave which has afflicted several Western European countries over the last few days has also now passed its peak.
Operational head Antonio Ramos said earlier on Saturday evening that there were still hot spots on the perimeter of the vast tongue-shaped affected area, but the fire services did not consider that there was a "risk of re-ignition or propagation" of the fire.
Ramos asserted out that this would be the first step to the scaling down of all the operations put into place from Wednesday at noon. On Saturday afternoon there were "three or four significant flare ups", some of them in the burned area, and others "more critical" on the northern edge of the fire's right flank, the zone that has remained most active but in a stabilization phase.
Fire chief David Borrell attending the media / ACN
Fire chief David Borrell explained that two firefighters had been evacuated by helicopter due to exhaustion. For this reason, he said, the firefighting personnel have been rotated to give impetus in combating the most difficult part of the fire's right flank. In fact, as Borrell said, this area of the fire led to the most injuries among firefighers due to the high temperatures encountered.
Catalan interior minister, Miquel Buch, explained that of the firefighters attended by medical staff, five were unable to continue fighting the fire, but there were no fears for their health.
On Sunday, local mayors will meet with the Catalan president, Quim Torra. Some are calling for the region to be declared a disaster area.
The images left behind after the flames are certainly devastating.
