Asturias burns
The region which forms part of ‘green Spain’ has been targeted by arsonists
‘GENUINE terrorists’ – these were the words used by president of Asturias, Adrián Barbón to describe the arsonists who have set dozens of fires in countryside around the mountainous region in the north of Spain.
Sr Barbón said he wanted to see the culprits in jail after around 11,000 hectares of forest and rural land was burned.
By Saturday the emergency services had reported 95 separate fires burning in the region, which is one of the wettest in Spain.
He called on anyone who has any information which could identify the fire starters to contact the emergency services.
The blazes started last Wednesday (March 29), with the president calling them ‘premeditated and organised’.
“When I say terrorists, I am talking about criminals who have to be investigated and found,” he said.
“We want the full force of the law to fall on them.”
He noted that miraculously no-one had died in the fires but ‘we have to be aware that
hundreds of people could have perished’.
One of the blazes in Naranco, near Oviedo, had been ignited in 12 different spots and the fire had ‘put homes in the area in danger’, which was a ‘deliberate’ act, according to Sr Barbón.
He added that while firefighters were battling one of largest infernos, new seats of fire had appeared ‘that had nothing to do with the wind’.
This had been done by people who ‘wanted to make the situation worse in many points’, he said.
He admitted that at this stage he did not know what the culprits were trying to achieve with the wave of arson attacks and they would have to wait for the concrete details of the police investigation.
All of the fires had been stabilised or were deemed to be under control by Monday.
Although many had not been extinguished, they were no longer advancing.
Sr Barbón said he will ask the national government to declare the region a ‘catastrophe zone’ so that they can have access to special funding to address the devastation caused by the fires.
His own government will offer a series of emergency grants for the affected areas in order to ‘restore the zones that have been burned as quickly as possible’.
He explained the initiatives to the mayors of the 46 worst affected municipalities.
More than 700 emergency services personnel have been taking part in the firefight, aided by the army’s UME emergencies brigade.