“A window of opportunity to protect lives and fight this very serious fire.” This is how Pedro Sánchez has defined the coming hours, given the change in wind and the drop in temperatures to try to control the fires devastating Madrid and Ávila. The head of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Marcos Izquierdo, explained that the forecast is that “presumably, in a short time” the two fires will merge into one in the area of San Martín de Valdeiglesias (Madrid). Given this circumstance, it has been decided to create a unified command for the emergency, to treat the fire as one and not two separate outbreaks as before.
The decision was made after Saturday morning’s meeting of the State Coordination and Management Committee of the State Emergency Plan (CECOD). Sánchez attended, having traveled to Cenicientos (Madrid) where he met with the president of this community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The Prime Minister recalled that, in application of article 30 of the National Civil Protection System Law and following the request from Madrid and Castilla y León, the central Executive assumes the direction of the response to what is now considered “a single fire,” affecting both communities since last Friday. This decision seeks “agility and effectiveness in the response.” “The situation remains very complex.”
Sanchez appeared accompanied by the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín. In his presentation of the situation, he detailed that 10 autonomous communities have already made resources available to the operation and confirmed the arrival this Saturday of four firefighting planes from Greece (two) and Italy (two) -Spain requested the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, at the request of the Military Emergency Unit (UME)-, as well as the deployment of more than a hundred Portuguese Army personnel in the province of Ávila.
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The absence of Díaz Ayuso during Sanchez’s speech was striking, despite the president himself insisting on thanking the involvement of “the entire State.”
He offered a campaign balance: more than 130,000 hectares burned so far this year, above the average of 100,000 hectares per year recorded in the last decade. The president called for “a grand State pact” among institutions in the face of what he described as a climate emergency, and announced that the Government is already preparing to support city councils and provincial councils in the reconstruction efforts of the affected areas.
