Toledo.- The delegate of the Government of Spain in Castilla-La Mancha, José Pablo Sabrido, has praised the total willingness of the media to fight in this fire campaign.

In a press conference after the coordination meeting on fire prevention, where he was accompanied by the deputy minister of the Environment of the regional government, José Almodóvar, and the general director of Citizen Protection of the JCCM, Emilio Puig, Sabrido stressed that “collaboration between administrations is excellent”.

“You know that one of the principles that the citizens demand of us is that the administrations be effective, and there is no better tool than collaboration and coordination,” said Sabrido, who concluded by stressing that “that is what we have worked on this morning.”

The meeting brought together the different administrations and services that fight forest fires and are already ready for the summer campaign. In addition, the coordination protocols between all the administrations and agencies involved in the fight against fire in Castilla-La Mancha have been reviewed and the means available for this work and the forecasts for the campaign that is now beginning have been analyzed.

The government delegate recalled that in the face of the arrival of extreme temperatures and prolonged heat episodes that may cause possible fires “institutional coordination works”.

Means available in the face of fires

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge provides its Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF) that has 56 air facilities throughout Spain, 2 of them are in Castilla-La Mancha.

In addition, before a level 2 operational situation declared by the Autonomous Community is when the UME can be activated, in our region would be the First Emergency Intervention Battalion (BIEM I), composed of 500 soldiers and based in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), whose operational area comprises the Autonomous Communities of Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura. This activation occurs due to the magnitude of a fire or the simultaneity of several fires.

For their part, the National Police and the Civil Guard coordinate the necessary traffic and traffic cuts in the face of the danger of a fire or the lack of visibility due to smoke, as well as carry out escort work for convoys that they send from the Coordination Center.

Another tool that has been highlighted has been the Mobile Analysis and Planning Unit (UMAP) of the AEMET, which is a mobile operations center, equipped with various systems of meteorology, communications, capture and transmission of information that integrated in computer systems constitute a support tool in the decision making of fire extinguishments.

It should also be noted that environmental crimes are the exclusive competence of the Civil Guard, who are responsible for clarifying the causes of the possible fires and who work with the forest agents of the Autonomous Community who make reports of the fires.

In addition to having coordinated all the necessary institutions for fighting fires, a message of prevention has also been sent to the public to take precautionary measures against conduct that may cause fires, or to inform as soon as possible after its detection so that specialized forces can act.

Representatives of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, the General Directorate of Citizen Protection and the Emergency Department of the Community Council of Castilla-La Mancha, the Civil Guard, the National Police, the Military Emergency Unit (BIEM I), the State Highway Demarcation, the General Directorate of Traffic, AEMET and the Civil Protection Unit of the Government Delegation participated in this meeting.