Low rainfall brings early threat of forest fires

PALMA
THE low amount of rainfall in the last few weeks has prompted concerns about the risk of forest fires. The Balearic Government is now looking at bringing forward the high risk period, during which the emergency services are on full alert for forest fires, to the middle or end of April.

So said the Minister for the Environment, Miquel Àngel Grimalt, before yesterday's meeting of the Commission for the Prevention of Forest Fires. The commission, which includes various representatives of the autonomous, local and state authorities, met to co-ordinate strategies for the prevention and extinction of forest fires.

Already this year, the period of high risk has been expanded by 15 days. At the moment, it begins on May 1 and ends on October 15.
Some 173'067 hectares of land in the Balearics are considered to be at high risk of forest fires, 120'397 in Majorca, 29'494 in Minorca and 23'176 in Ibiza and Formentera.

These areas combine conditions propitious for the starting and rapid expansion of fires, according to the head of the Environmental Management service, Luis Berbiela. These include the type of landscape (the further south and more hilly the landscape the more susceptible), the type of vegetation and the weather.

Much of the equipment for fighting forest fires on the islands has been modernised.
No airplane is over 15 years old and communications systems and other vital equipment have also been improved.
The islands currently have nine aircraft available for fire fighting, seven ground units, two helicopters and eight fire engines, as well as technical and support staff.

In relation to surveillance, there are 26 monitors in fixed positions, eight mobile monitors and one spotter plane available throughout the islands.
In total, some 400 people are available for fire prevention and extinction in the Balearics with a budget of almost 10 million euros. “If the fire isn't got under control straight away, the knock on effect can be serious and putting it out, extremely complicated,” said Grimalt.