The three serious fires declared in the last week in Extremadura, specifically in Las Hurdes, Casas de Miravete (which affected the Monfragüe National Park) and Valle del Jerte, have burned a total of more than 6,200 hectares. The first two are already controlled while their level of danger has dropped to level 1.
For the time being, five ground units and one aerial unit will remain in both areas, which work with “caution due to possible reproductions due to having a large perimeter”, the Infoex Plan has warned.
The one from Jerte, which affected the Garganta de los Infiernos this weekend, which was provoked and had two points of origin, is stabilized and with “good evolution” while four ground units continue to work.
Specifically, and according to initial estimates, the one that has burned the largest area has been Casas de Miravete (with no official information on its origin), with 3,239 hectares burned, of which more than 300 within the National Park and the rest included in the Monfragüe Biosphere Reserve.
The one in the region of Las Hurdes (which began due to lightning) affected 2,864 hectares in Extremadura (9,000 in the province of Salamanca), and 168 hectares burned in the Jerte Valley.
Meanwhile, the President of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, who was rebuked by a group of neighbors, including several ranchers, when he was waiting for the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, on Monday, framed these protests in that these people “are living it as a drama.”
In this sense, he has clarified that “I am not his enemy, I am on his side, and in defense of his interests”, for which he advocated “listening to the people”. Thus, he specified that “they have their opinion that there is an excess of environmental protection and that this is harming them” while he advocated opening a debate on the need “to introduce modifications in forestry policy.”
The Federation of Rural Tourism of Extremadura (Fextur) launched a message of “calm and tranquility” after the succession of fires in the most representative jewels of tourism in the nature reserves of the province of Cáceres: “The season goes on, they continue to receive calls to make reservations. Extremadura, in general, and Las Hurdes, El Jerte and Monfragüe in particular, continue to offer beautiful places to enjoy a vacation”.
Its president, Victoria Bazaga, has specified that the areas affected by the fires are “a small part of them” while the cancellations that have occurred “have been minimal and localized.”
Likewise, the Valle del Jerte Tourism Association stressed that the region is completely normal: “The fire is out and has only affected a small area of the upper part of the Garganta de los Infiernos in which there is no no tourist route.
In this sense, he highlights that “the bathing area of this nature reserve has not been affected and at no time has any establishment, or any town, been evicted, nor has this possibility ever been on the table.”
For this reason, they warn against doubts that may exist among tourists that “the Jerte Valley can be fully visited, without any risk to the visitor, of any kind, who will be able to enjoy the many bathing areas in the region, its gorges or their routes”.
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