The Government approves the plan against fires in 2023 with a "spirit of adaptation" to climate change

The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the Plan of Actions against forest fires for the summer and the remainder of 2023 taking into account a “spirit of adaptation to climate change”, which is why the device was brought forward almost two months, and which includes a set of support measures for the autonomous communities, those competent in the fight against fire.

This was announced by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska during the conference after the Council of Ministers, where he recalled that “among the highest priorities” of the Government is the fight against climate change and its consequences, which have demonstrated their ” terrible destructive potential” on towns, fields, cities, livestock and agricultural exploitations and on the natural heritage of the different regions of Spain.

For this reason, he recalled that on April 28 the State Committee for Coordination and Management of the State Plan was established on April 28, a month and a half before the usual dates. Marlaska highlighted that according to the European Information System on Forest Fires, in Spain more than 300,000 hectares burned in 2022 and it became the country with the largest forest area destroyed by fire, adding that the number of large forest fires (more of 500 hectares) was three times higher than the average of the last ten years.

In addition, it has specified that last year the State Security Forces and Corps carried out preventive evacuations of the population in 94 forest fires that affected more than 30,200 residents and four people lost their lives in these fires.. “This is what we are facing”, said the Minister of the Interior, who has assured that the Government has agreed to put “all the necessary means to face this scenario and protect citizens, their lives and their property”..

fire plan

Specifically, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge will contribute the Forest Fire Brigades (BRIF) and up to eleven high-capacity seaplanes operated by the 43rd Army Air and Space Group of the Ministry of Defense.. Interior will make available the troops of the State Security Forces, 1,400 troops from the Military Emergency Unit who will be dedicated to the direct fight against fires and personnel from the General Directorate of Traffic, among other means such as other logistical and operational support that might be necessary.

The fire campaign will be coordinated by the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior will coordinate the management of the means with which the General State Administration supports the regional fire-fighting devices. On the other hand, the minister has said that the National Police actively participates in the fire-fighting plans in force in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Galicia, Navarra and the Valencian Community..