High risk of wildfires across Catalonia this weekend

This weekend will see a high risk of wildfires across Catalonia. 

Authorities have raised the Alfa Plan to Level 2, the second-highest level of Catalonia's four-tier fire warning plan that goes from 0 to 3, in many counties in the south, west, and central areas of the territory. This officially means there is a high to very high risk of wildfire in ten different counties. 

In the majority of the rest of Catalonia, the Alfa Plan for this weekend will be at Level 1, meaning a moderate to high level risk of a blaze breaking out. 

Only six counties will see their Alfa Plan levels at 0, meaning a low to moderate risk of fire – Pla d'Urgell in the west, and five counties surrounding the city of Girona in the north: Gironés, Baix Empordà, Selva, Garrotxa, and Pla d'Estany. 

From levels 2 and 3 of the Alfa Plan, also the pre-alert and alert stages of the special emergency plan for forest fires also become activated. 

In these higher-risk conditions, certain activities likely to cause forest fires are prohibited or restricted, such as some sports activities, forestry or agricultural work, and the use of barbecues in leisure areas. In some cases, access to mountain ranges can be restricted. 

Catalonia's Rural Agents prepare the map of this Alpha Plan on a daily basis based on the risk of forest fires and other risk analysis tools.

Valencia fire

The biggest risk of fire in Catalonia is seen in the southern and western parts of the territory. 

Currently, there is a major wildfire burning in the Valencia region which borders Catalonia to the south, as well as in Teruel, the southernmost area of the region of Aragon, bordering Catalonia to the west. 

The blaze has already forced some residents to evacuate their homes. 

Other unseasonable conditions

Last week, the Alfa Plan was finally lowered from Level 2 to Level 1 after three significant blazes had hit Catalonia over the prior seven days. 

The Alfa Level 2 protocol was activated on March 10 and came to an end on March 17. 

During that time, flames swept around 24 hectares in Calafell, a seaside town 65 km south of Barcelona, and some locals had to be evacuated from their homes. A local court is investigating whether that blaze was caused by a medium voltage electricity cable.

On the same days, another wildfire spread across 20 hectares of land in the Selva del Camp area, near Tarragona in the south of Catalonia, and it's thought that the burning of some vegetation may have caused that incident.

On Thursday, another fire broke out in Canejan, in the westernmost part of the Catalan Pyrenees, in Val d'Aran. Around 100 hectares were burned as of March 17.