Following the recent woodland fires in Campoamor and Ls Rambles the Orihuela Council wants to protect the pasture and its surroundings like Pilar de la Horadada, which already has summer reinforcement for it’s protected areas and pine forests
The scare last week was huge with over twelve hectares leading to the council insisting on the need to have forest firefighters in summer, when heat and wind – the main problem with this recent fire – fan the flames, devastating extensive areas of pine forests like those along the coastal landscape. Now the government team is demanding that the Generalitat have a forest fire department based in Orihuela Costa.
The closest fire station to the Oriolano coast is in Torrevieja, operated by the Provincial Council and 15 kilometres from last week’s fires. Forest firefighters, more specialised in this type of fire, arrived later from Jijona, just over 100km away.
Although the distance is not excessive, depending on the fire it can be key. Just a few minutes can mean a big difference in preventing the spread, especially when pine forests like the Dehesa de Campoamor are affected by drought.
For many years the municipality of Pilar de la Horadada, has had a summer base provided by the provincial Consortium that operates during daylight hours. Pilar de la Horadada has multiple forested areas in its interior, upstream of the Seco River, such as the Pinar de la Perdiz and the foothills of Sierra Escalona, with many populated urbanisations.
As investigations continue by the Guardia Civil into the origins of the fires in Campoamor the possible presence of an arsonist is one major scenario that is being considered. This hypothesis gained strength on Friday because, when the fire reignited in the same burned area, at the same time another fire broke out in the El Galán urbanisation, in San Miguel de Salinas.
