Areas close to urban centres will be cleared with bushes in Álava to prevent forest fires from reaching homes

The Provincial Council of Álavawill strengthen the forest fire prevention plan by adopting new measures, such as a specific programme to clean up "transition zones" between urban centres and mountains, in order to prevent fires from reaching homes, as has happened this summer in several Autonomous Communities of the State.

The MP, Ramiro González , announced on Tuesday new preventive measures following the fires that have burned 340,000 hectares in Spain this summer and in anticipation of "an increasingly long, drier and emergency summer."

Álava has an Annual Plan for the Prevention, Monitoring and Suppression of Forest Fires, which by 2025 will reserve EUR 2 million for forest treatment, protection infrastructure such as firewalls and access, and local authorities and forest owners.

This winter investment in prevention, which "has long led the management of Álava, "is" the best guarantee against fires, "and has allowed the 12 fires recorded in summer to be extinguished" in record time, without causing much damage. "

"We now want to take a further step with new measures adapted to climate change," the MEP said.

The first of these measures is to provide free training in the first firefighting actions, specifically aimed at farmers and administrative boards. The second is an intervention plan to clean up bushes in areas close to the mountain so that the fire does not reach the houses.

They will also update the maps of forest tracks and catches, including irrigation rafts as strategic water-loading points; and remove herbaceous bushes through extensive livestock farmingto maintain firewalls and critical areas.