The mayor of Berrocal (Huelva), Ángel Luis Romero, has described the situation in which the municipality has been left after the devastating fire that started in Niebla as “catastrophic,” stating that the town is “dead, exactly like its land,” after reliving a tragedy similar to the one they already suffered 22 years ago with the fire that began in Riotinto in 2004 and burned about 34,000 hectares.
He stated this in comments to Europa Press from Zalamea la Real, where he is with his neighbors relocated in the Ruiz Tatay Municipal Theater of the Zalameño municipality. “Except for the houses, we have absolutely nothing, nothing but a sea of coal around the town,” lamented the mayor of Berrocal, who emphasized that although the impact is “horrible,” the tragedy could have been worse if the fire had entered the urban area, so he was grateful that the town was saved.
Romero expressed the deep pain of a population of barely 300 inhabitants — along with their villages of Marigenta, Membrillo, Pozuelos, and Montesorromero — when seeing the state in which the municipal area has been left. “We knew it perfectly, and unfortunately, we have the experience from 22 years ago, which is even more frustrating. To live this again 22 years later is a huge tragedy,” he stressed.
Pending official assessments, the mayor estimates that the fire has destroyed “between 90 and 95 percent” of the 12,000 hectares of the Berrocal municipal area. “Going out for a walk now is like walking among coals. There are barely small things that give hope, like a tree that has survived or the cemetery area, which fortunately has not suffered damage,” he explained.
Visibly emotional, the mayor described the state of the neighborhood as “a pressure cooker of helplessness, fear, frustration, and exhaustion” and emphasized that the neighbors are “broken, shattered, and dead.” In this regard, he bitterly wondered “how” a predominantly rural and forest municipality is going to “live” from now on. “Where are we going to eat from? Right now we are a dead town, a town that has no future if this remains short-term measures of one or two years,” he warned.
Faced with this scenario, Ángel Luis Romero made a desperate call for the unity of all administrations — central government and Junta de Andalucía — and demanded a “real and long-term” commitment to avoid the definitive “disappearance” of the town.
“We need them right now for everything. Either we are all united to save this, or we will have to put a box in the Town Hall for the neighbors to hand over their keys, their deeds, and leave,” he concluded, while recalling the irreparable heritage value of the area: “How much is a town worth, how much is its history worth. In Berrocal, we have the oldest dolmen in the province of Huelva, with 5,000 years of history. We are talking about that,” he concluded.
38,000 hectares affected
The perimeter covered by the Niebla forest fire can reach and exceed 38,000 hectares as it has spread to other municipalities, although “the burned area is much less than that figure,” according to the Minister of the Presidency, Health, and Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, who stated this on Friday.
In response to journalists at the Advanced Command Post (PMA), he wanted to clearly differentiate between “area covered” and “burned area,” two concepts that, in his opinion, cause confusion among the public due to measurement systems and visualization on public pages.
“If we even look at pages where what appears are pixels that are several kilometers and it is enough for the pixel to light up entirely, the extension seen does not exactly correspond to the area covered,” explained the minister, who added that the precise data on the affected surface is known “days after” the fire is extinguished.
Furthermore, he justified the prudence of the Andalusian government in communicating initial figures to avoid “excessively alarming the population,” recalling that the fire’s advance through its perimeter often passes through areas that ultimately are not consumed by the flames.
“The fire’s path passes through areas that do not end up burning,” noted Sanz, who recalled that evacuation protocols for people are often activated preventively over areas that the fire simply approaches for strictly safety reasons.
Nevertheless, the minister acknowledged the severity of the episode and admitted that, whatever the final tally of burned hectares, it is “one of the most extensive fires we have ever had in Andalusia,” a point he described as “undisputed.”
“Cornering” the flames on the east flank
The firefighting operation working on the fire has managed this Friday to “corner” the fire towards a single active area in the eastern sector, the most active in recent days, so the situation of “beyond extinguishing capacity” is behind.
Antonio Sanz assured that the goal of strangling the fire and reducing its ability to advance “is being met,” with positive progress in the vast majority of the perimeter.
The southern flank is inactive, while the northwest and northern sectors remain calm and in a cooling phase, although vigilance is maintained against possible reactivations.
The deployment of the operation includes 875 personnel working in shifts, supported by 33 aerial means and 352 mechanical and material means, including 18 bulldozers.
Sanz highlighted that despite the progress, the fire is still of an “unprecedented difficulty in Andalusia,” after seven consecutive days of extreme conditions and up to six daily changes in wind direction.
Efforts are now concentrated in the eastern sector to prevent fire jumps on the roads, with a complex scenario for the coming hours due to the forecast of winds with gusts between 40 and 50 km/h, temperatures above 40 degrees, and relative humidity below 30%.
660 people remain evacuated, although coordinated occasional access has been opened for collecting essential belongings and feeding livestock.
Additionally, the high presence and high combustibility of eucalyptus have been consolidated as the key element to understand the virulence and extreme behavior of the fire, as it presents singularities that make it an exceptionally dangerous fuel.
