The government delegate in Cantabria, Pedro Casares, has highlighted the inclusion of the fires in Camaleño and Vega de Liébana as affected areas and highlights the commitment of the Government of Spain to the reconstruction of the areas affected by the forest fires.
Casares has valued the approval in the Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior, of the declaration as areas seriously affected by a civil protection emergency all those in which episodes of this type have been recorded.
“The speed with which the Government of Spain is acting not only in the prevention and fight against fires but also in the reconstruction of all affected areas is a further demonstration that we are dealing with a Government for which its only priority is the defense of the general interest and the protection of citizens,” he stressed.
For Casares, that the Government has enabled this Tuesday the procedure for all those affected by the 121 civil protection emergencies registered in Spain since June 24 to request the different types of aid provided for in Law 17/2015, of July 9, of the National Civil Protection System “is an example of commitment to the country”.
“Forest fires have been a tragedy in human and environmental terms that must be addressed with unity by advancing that State pact against the climate emergency that makes more resources available to fight fires and above all with prevention and with having a country response to the changes that climate change is producing,” he said.
In this regard, Casares recalled that since June 24, the National Emergency Monitoring and Coordination Center (CENEM) of the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior has been informed of 121 civil protection emergencies: 114 correspond to forest fires in operative situation 1 or 2 registered in the communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Community of Madrid, Comunitat Valenciana, Extremadura, Galicia, Illes Balears, La Rioja, Navarra and Region of Murcia.
“The remaining seven warnings correspond to floods and floods caused by episodes of heavy rain recorded last June in the communities of Aragón, Castilla y León, La Rioja and Region of Murcia,” he said.
Agreement of the Council of Ministers
In the case of the fires, the agreement of the Council of Ministers includes the three serious waves of major forest fires that, with varying intensity and severity, have been recorded in Spain in the last two months.
The first one took place at the end of June, when there were several forest fires in Alicante, Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Valencia, all of them with operational situation 1, which meant the activation of the plans of the affected autonomous communities of their fire prevention and fighting plans.
The second wave of fires began on July 7 with the communication of the fire in the province of Tarragona, in operative situation 2, which resulted in the death of one person, six more wounds and confinements of populations. As of July 11, fires were reported to CENEM in Cadiz, Ciudad Real, Toledo and Valencia.
The situation worsened from July 17 and the fires also appeared in Alicante, Ávila and Madrid. On July 19, CENEM receives fire alerts in Badajoz and Valladolid, and on July 20, emergencies are added in Albacete, Cáceres, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Illes Balears, La Rioja, León, Ourense, Navarra, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Teruel.
The third and most destructive wave of fires begins on August 8 with the communication of forest fires in San Bartolomé de Pinares (Ávila) and Brazatortas (Ciudad Real). Since that date, new emergencies arise in León, Navarra, Ourense and Zamora.
On August 11, nine fires in operational situation 2, of intense gravity, in Cáceres, Cádiz, León, Madrid, Ourense, Toledo and Zamora encourage the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior to declare, in the early morning of August 12, the Pre-Emergency Phase 1 of the National State Emergency Plan to coordinate the provision of all state media to the autonomous communities affected by the fires.
On August 12, the CENEM receives notice of eleven more fires, of the utmost gravity, and Asturias and Huelva join the list of affected provinces. Since then, the great fires have continued, affecting mainly the communities of Asturias, Castilla y León, Galicia and Extremadura, and 15 of them are still active today.
Aid
As a result of these events, personal damage has been caused, especially eight people who have died and a still to be quantified number of injured, as well as serious destruction of infrastructure and public and private property, which justify the intervention of the General Administration of the State by the principle of interterritorial solidarity and in a subsidiary way, complementary to the actions that, in the exercise of their powers, are entrusted to the territorial administrations.
The agreement of the Council of Ministers includes direct aid within the competence of the Ministry of the Interior aimed at alleviating personal injury; materials in housing and furnishings; expenses of local corporations; in industrial, commercial and service establishments, and natural or legal persons who have made personal and property benefits.
It also provides for the possibility for the Autonomous Agency Central Traffic Headquarters to approve an exemption from the fees for procedures such as duplicates of circulation or driving permits, as well as casualties of damaged vehicles, and also for the issuance of the ID card.
Other measures falling within the competence of other ministries may include certain tax benefits (Ministry of Finance), labour and social security measures (Ministries of Labour and Social Economy, and of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration) and aid to local corporations (Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory) or subsidies for damage to agricultural, livestock, forestry and aquaculture production (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).
The remaining ministerial departments, within the scope of their competences, may declare a special area of action as well as the emergency of the works to repair the damage caused to publicly owned infrastructures located in the areas affected by these civil protection emergencies.