Sant Pere Sallavinera wildfire stabilized after affecting 130 hectares

Firefighters have stabilized the wildfire in Sant Pere Sallavinera (Anoia county, central Catalonia), which has affected 130 hectares of agricultural and forest land, as of Tuesday evening at 9.30pm.

The fire department told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that the fire perimeter was successfully encircled after securing the most difficult sections on the right flank, in a cultivated field, and at the head of the fire.

They now hope the blaze does not spread further, as it has been stopped at the base of a ridge.

Weather conditions have improved, with increased humidity and almost no wind, factors that have also aided the firefighters' efforts.

Confinement orders

Stay-indoors orders for isolated farmhouses in Aguilar de Segarra (Bages county), Sant Pere Sallavinera and Fonollosa (Bages county) will now be lifted.

Catalonia's Civil Protection authority earlier sent an Es-Alert emergency message to mobile phones in the area, ordering the restrictive measure in response to a wildfire that broke out at 5pm.

On Tuesday evening, in the hours before the fire was declared stabilized, the firefighting deployment was 115 personnel, with 41 ground crews and 3 aircraft. 

In Aguilar de Segarra, where the majority of housing is isolated farmhouses, the shelter-in-place order effectively applied to nearly the entire municipality.

The flames started in agricultural vegetation, and the spread into a forest area. 

Of the 130 hectares affected, around 60% is agricultural land and the remaining 40% forested. 

At the command center established in Calaf, deputy fire inspector Adrià Puig told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that only parts of the forested area have burned, not the entire zone.

Moderate winds were blowing in the area earlier on Tuesday evening.

Paüls fire

Firefighters continue to battle a huge blaze in southern Catalonia, which has burned over 3,100 hectares and forced 18,000 people to be confined indoors.

The wildfire in Paüls, in the southern county of Baix Ebre, broke out around midday on Monday, and became "extreme" overnight due to a sudden wind shift.

This wildfire season is already Catalonia's most devastating in the past 12 years.