New wildfire in western Catalonia declared after recent 2,700-hectare blaze in same town

A new wildfire has been declared in Artesa de Segre, in the Lleida area, western Catalonia.

The firefighters were warned of flames burning several agricultural areas near a forest in the town at around 5pm local time on Wednesday, and within three hours, 128 hectares had been affected by the blaze.

As of 8pm, 60.5 hectares of forest were affected, as well as 67.5 agricultural ones and 0.2 ha of urban soil.

The ongoing fire was being tackled by 50 firefighters and 13 aerial units in the evening. 

The professionals managed to "stabilize" the flames at around 10.30pm.

The incident started only two weeks after the most serious blaze of the season in the country began in the same town – firefighters only managed to control it one week later, and officially put it out on June 23, when around 2,700 hectares had already been burned.

Indeed, the blaze in Baldomar, in the municipality of Artesa de Segre, was the most serious of the over 300 declared in less than a week, coinciding with the first heatwave across the country.

Both the Catalan and Spanish government have guaranteed aids for those affected in the western Catalan wildfire.

In the whole episode, which came to an end on June 20, around 4,000 hectares were burned, but the several blazes could have affected up to 100,000 hectares.

Some of the other areas affected between June 15 and 20 included Olivella (Garraf county, coast south of Barcelona), Lladurs and Castellar de la Ribera(Solsonès county, in the central-western part of Catalonia), and Corbera d'Ebre (Terra Alta, Ebre river delta region).