The fire originated in the municipality of La Mierla, the largest in the history of Guadalajara, which has burned more than 32,000 hectares, is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Since last Thursday, dozens of villages have been evacuated, but after days of flames, a lot of smoke and tension, some residents have begun to return to their homes.
This Wednesday, the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, presided over the CECOPI meeting in Tamajón and offered the first message of hope: “We are entering a phase of reasonable optimism.” The fire is not extinguished, but it is more controlled. And for the first time since this inferno began, **some restrictions have been lifted**.
Of the 34 localities that were evacuated at the most critical moments, **five have been able to start receiving their residents back**: Riofrío del Llano, Cardeñosa, Santiuste, Angón and Rebollosa de Jadraque. García-Page himself pointed out that La Mierla, the village where it all originated, could join that list during the day or tomorrow. In contrast, **29 villages remain evacuated**.
García-Page has also stated that “in a few days” it will “probably” be possible to continue recovering the rehousing of “everyone” because “it is not enough for the surroundings to be cool, that is, for there to be no risk of fire,” but rather that “basic services must be restored.”
In this regard, he indicated that **there is already electrification throughout the area,** which remained cut precisely due to the fire, and also telephone service in “almost one hundred percent” of the affected areas, so now it is time to guarantee water supply because many of these small municipalities are supplied by natural wells that have been affected by the fire, so it will be necessary to supply them with provisional tanks.
“The rehousing, to be clear, will also depend on availability,” he added, recalling that access to attend to livestock has been guaranteed since this Tuesday.
Regarding the outlook, the regional president insisted on exercising “caution” despite the “reasonable optimism” because **strong winds** are forecast for this coming Thursday, although he stated, paraphrasing the UME lieutenant colonel, that now “we are ahead of the fire.”
“We are starting to face it in a more reassuring way, with many more guarantees of success, to the point that the two essential main objectives –saving human lives and the populations that could be devastated by the flames– are now more guaranteed than they have ever been,” he explained.
This newspaper has been able to speak with some of the residents who have not yet been able to return permanently. As they tell it, they are able to visit their homes every day, but always accompanied by **Civil Guard** agents, who supervise access to the still affected areas. They enter, check that everything is still standing, and then leave again.
“There is a lot of sadness… because a large part of the landscape in this area has been lost. But at least the flames did not enter the village,” says a resident of La Mierla, who went to the command post, located in **Tamajón (Guadalajara)**, this Wednesday morning to try to get more information about when they can return to sleep in their beds.
AROUND 32,000 HECTARES AFFECTED
Regarding the forest area, García-Page updated the data, commenting that it **affects around 32,000 hectares** which will have to be adjusted later because “there are areas within the fire that have not burned.” “It is, of course, of enormous magnitude,” he noted.
The president stated that this is **an area “of very high value and high risk”** and defended that “a lot of prevention work” has been done in recent years in the land around the natural park “precisely to combat the fire.”
“That is to say, what some always criticize for not being done, has been done, and a lot. And what’s more, it has been effective because it has helped, especially on the right flank, to contain the fire,” he asserted.
GOVERNMENT AID
Regarding the words of the Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, **Sara Aagesen**, who assured this Tuesday that the Government would cover 50% of the recovery of the area affected by the fire, García-Page pointed out that “of course” the Autonomous Community would request “the declaration of a disaster zone.”
“But I understand that the declaration made yesterday by the vice-president goes beyond the disaster zone; it has to do with natural areas, and this really matters to us because emergencies are one thing, but then the restoration of the environment, which often happens through its own natural course, will need help, action will have to be taken,” he commented.
In this way, he hopes that this aid will materialize in “a mechanism different from that of disaster zones” because it refers to “the restoration of environments, wells, and many infrastructures.”
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