Maximum fire risk alert dropped, restrictions on natural spaces lifted

The Catalan government has deactivated the maximum alert of the emergency plan for forest fires on Tuesday morning, after cooler temperatures and rain around parts of the territory have meant that the risk of fire has decreased.

The restrictions in force since Saturday are also being lifted and access to natural spaces in the municipalities affected by level 4 of the Alfa Plan is being reopened.

In the last three days, sports and outdoor activities such as camping have had to be moved to a populated area or suspended in these towns, among other limitations.

Civil Protection authorities reported on Tuesday that no municipality is at level 4, for extreme forest fire danger, or level 3, very high danger, any longer.

Meanwhile, the Barcelona city council has also deactivated the Municipal Action Plan for the Risk of Forest Fires, which had been active since last Friday.

Likewise, the council has deactivated the alert for torrid nights, which had been active since August 10 in the alert phase and since the 16th in the emergency phase. Torrid nights are those that exceed 28°C at night.

In recent days, the heat wave has caused thermometers to soar and the risk of fire has been extreme in more than a hundred municipalities in Catalonia.

Meanwhile, large fires are burning across the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

Catalonia has sent around fifty firefighters, six trucks, eight light vehicles, and three aerial vehicles to help fight the wildfires burning in Extremadura.

To learn more about the history of wildfires in Catalonia and its strategy to tackle them, listen to this episode of our podcast Filling the Sink.