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ARCHIVED - Murcia Region declared catastrophe zone following Jumilla wildfire
The spectacular Jumilla blaze burned 400 hectares of land to the ground
The Region of Murcia, along with fifteen other communities in Spain, has been declared a catastrophe zone following the devastating forest fires of August, which have resulted in three deaths nationally and the temporary evacuation of more than 27,500 people from their homes.
Murcia’s inclusion on the list was confirmed by government spokesperson Isabel Rodriguez following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday August 23 and means that the Region will have faster and easier access to grants and compensation to repair the damage caused by the fires.
In the Murcian community, the most serious blazes were those experienced in the Sierra de Jumilla just ten days ago and that resulted in around 400 hectares of land being scorched.
The Mayor of Jumilla, Juana Guardiola, stressed that “the area affected in our case is almost entirely forest land. In the absence of confirmation of the figures, for the moment we know that the fire in Jumilla minimally affected some vineyards, olive, almond and fruit trees.”
She went on to thank “the promptness of this declaration, as well as the sensitivity of the Spanish Government to help with the recovery work after these devastating fires in different areas of Spain”.
More than 220,000 hectares have burned in Spain by mid-August, a staggering increase on the 50,000 seen in a normal year. This makes 2022 the second worst year of the century for wildfires and has spurred the central government into action to develop more robust prevention and extinction plans.
In all, 119 major fires have broken out across Spain since June 12, with the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Valencia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, the Region of Murcia, Navarra, the Basque Country and La Rioja, all declared catastrophe zones as a result.
In Alicante province, the devastating Vall d’Ebo wildfire raged for six days and nights and razed 12,150 acres of forest land, which experts believe could take as long as 30 years to regenerate.
Image: Ayuntamiento de Jumilla
