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ENVIRONMENT

Wildfire in Spain forces hundreds to evacuate

Firefighters backed by soldiers battled a wildfire in western Spain on Friday that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages, officials said.

Published: 19 May 2023 11:57 CEST
Wildfire in Spain forces hundreds to evacuate
Fire fighters tackle a blaze in Spain's Extremadura. Photo: Jose Jordan / AFP

The blaze, which broke out Wednesday near the village of Pinofranqueado in the sparsely populated region of Extremadura, was set “intentionally”, the region’s agriculture minister Begona Garcia told reporters.

At least 550 people from several villages have been evacuated because of the risk of the flames, Spain’s Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Why are there so many forest fires in Spain?

The battle against the blaze was “evolving unfavourably, mainly due to the strong winds,” the statement added.

Over 275 professionals backed by 14 water aircraft were working to put out the flames, the regional government said. The firefighting team included some 165 soldiers from Spain’s military emergencies unit UME.

“There are very strong gusts of wind, which are making it very difficult to put out the fire,” UME commander David Barona told public television TVE.

READ ALSO: What to do and what to avoid if you witness a forest fire in Spain

He estimated the blaze had so far ravaged up to 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was following the “evolution of the wildfire very closely”.

Spain, which is experiencing long-term drought after three years of below-average rainfall, has experienced multiple wildfires already this year.

The drought was made worse by an unusually early heatwave at the end of April that brought exceptionally high temperatures normally only seen in summer across much of the country.

READ ALSO: Spain to spend €2 billion to tackle drought

The mercury hit 38.8C (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Granada on April 27th, the hottest temperature ever recorded in mainland Spain during that month.

In 2022, a particularly bad year for wildfires in Europe, Spain was the continent’s worst-hit country. Nearly 500 blazes destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events including heatwaves and droughts more frequent and more intense. They increase the risk of fires, which emit climate-heating greenhouse gases.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Mutant cockroaches’: Why Spain’s rising temperatures make them multiply

Experts in Spain are warning that rising temperatures are causing genetic mutations in cockroach populations that lengthen their breeding seasons and make them more resistant to traditional pesticides.

Published: 16 April 2024 11:04 CEST
'Mutant cockroaches': Why Spain's rising temperatures make them multiply

They’re a part of Spanish summers that everyone dreads. No, not the blistering heat or beaches and beauty spots teeming with tourists, but the cockroaches coming out of hibernation.

If you haven’t lived in a warm climate before, this can come as a bit of a shock. This is especially true if you come across some of the huge, brown cockroaches scurrying across the street or, even worse, in your house.

But now climate and pest control experts warn that climate change could make the problem even worse by causing a genetic mutation and creating what the Spanish press have dubbed ‘mutant cockroaches’ (cucarachas mutantes) that are growing immune to traditional pesticides.

READ ALSO: What to do about insects and other pests in your home in Spain?

The mutation, experts fear, combined with longer breeding seasons and increased birth rates, could pose a public health risk.

Rising temperatures are causing the ‘blond’ or Germanic cockroach (blattella germanica) to genetically mutate.

“Their metabolic cycle is accelerated” by the heat and they are increasingly immune to insecticides, Jorge Galván, director general of the National Association of Environmental Health Companies (Anecpla), told Spanish news outlet 20minutos.

Climate change has changed Spain from “subtropical to a tropical climate,” Galván says.

“The warm seasons are getting longer and the cold ones are getting hotter.” This in turn means that cockroaches appear “a couple of months earlier” and stay out later into the year than they previously would.

This means a longer breeding season, and therefore a larger number of cockroaches.

The effects of these high temperatures combined with longer breeding seasons substantially increases “the probability of a genetic alteration.” Already, pest control experts have seen that cockroaches are becoming immune to traditional pesticides and can ingest chemicals previously used to kill them, something that will, Galván fears, contribute to problems not only of pest control “but of public health.”

READ ALSO: What venomous species are there in Spain?

Carlos Pradera, technical manager of the pest control company Anticimex, explained that “the more we treat them, the more they withstand the pressure.”

For this reason, Pradera says, experts are investigating other “preventive measures” to try and combat the genetic changes, looking at other “other methodologies based on traps and vacuums.”

Cockroaches are becoming increasingly common in homes and bars and restaurants in Spain, experts warn. Anticimex carried out almost 40 percent more pest control incidents in 2023 than the previous year, a record, according to data provided to EL PERIÓDICO.

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