Meeting in Villasbuenas, on April 20, during four intense hours, the situation of the peri-urban plans in our territories, their need and legal obligation was reviewed. A day that in the words of Alejandro Cano of the Fire Prevention and Extinction Service; “<Em> highlights the great concern that exists for the risk of fire, the danger caused to people living in rural areas and the danger for professionals working to extinguish it </ em>”.

To work on these self-defense plans, the municipalities are the key figure and the meeting was attended by several mayors of the territory, who exposed the difficulties they find to effectively implement these programs, such as exactly defining the territory to be included in the 400 m. or the actions that must be carried out in private areas. In the final conclusions Fernando Pulido, as head of the mosaic project, added that the mediated infrastructure shown by the technicians, should be added the human factor, ie the agricultural, forestry and livestock that should be included in the prevention plan , as effective tools to achieve safer towns.

Juan Jesús Sancho, coordinator of the Sierra de Gata Fire Prevention and Extinction Services, explained the behavior of fire in fires, according to the variable combination between quantity of fuel and its relation with wind and geography. He showed photographs to illustrate when you can act and when the extinguishing services are overwhelmed. For a safer intervention of the professionals and to avoid as far as possible these catastrophic scenarios, we exposed the different actions that are performed on the ground, such as strips of clearing, areas of firebreaks, pruning, grades, preventive lines, ponds , auxiliary strips, all terms that the reader can find explained in the documents uploaded on this website in the Files section.

José Antonio Bayón, Head of the Fire Technical Bureau, gave a speech about what we can do at a particular and municipal level to better protect ourselves from possible fires and what the legal obligations are.

Before he gave a brief analysis of the main causes of these fires, being the abandonment of the countryside and rural depopulation the most important factor.

As concrete advice for those business owners or houses, outside the 400 m. that marks the periruban zone, recommended, applying in this common sense, that an area of ​​3 m be maintained. free of fuel, avoid garbage and storage of combustible objects near constructions, extend these fringes up to 30 m in areas of high irrigation, avoid heights of great combustibility, close windows in case of fire, prune and clear every year, have emergency exits and not make difficult the entry of firefighters with impenetrable gates or other difficulties.

Prevention plans are required for municipalities, concentrations of houses of different owners, industrial estates, power plants, rail lines and roads, as well as camping or camping.

Moisés Burgos, of the Service of Forest Management and Management, showed with aerial images and maps, the different plans of prevention of the villages of Las Hurdes and those approved in the Sierra de Gata. With these images one could appreciate the different designed infrastructures, the main and secondary lines in the perimeter of the towns. This talk was completed with that of Alejandro Cano who pointed out the obligatory actions to be taken into account in a peri-urban prevention plan such as: Points or water points, communication routes, protection band, define vulnerable places, defense networks for most dangerous nuclei. From all this you can expand information in the ARCHIVES section of our website.