Sánchez and Moreno warn of “increasingly dramatic” fires due to the climate crisis

When the Los Gallardos fire, which has claimed the lives of 13 people and has devoured more than 7,000 hectares, could be declared controlled today and the emergency has been downgraded to operational situation 0, Pedro Sánchez and Juanma Moreno appeared together at the Advanced Command Post located in the Almerian town of Turre to deliver a message that goes beyond the balance of the tragedy: Spain needs to prepare to live with increasingly extreme emergencies, having highlighted that new generation fires are much more complex and voracious than those of a decade ago.

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This reflection, shared by the President of the Government and the President of the Junta of Andalusia, has led them to consider the possibility of incorporating specific training into the Spanish educational system so that students learn how to react to forest fires and other civil protection situations.

“We not only have to react, we have to prevent,” Sánchez argued, calling for a “great national agreement” against the climate emergency. Moreno went a step further by suggesting that the educational model should teach citizens how to handle an emergency because, he said, that knowledge can “save lives.”

The appearance came just minutes after they toured the command post together, greeted the Infoca forces, the UME, the Civil Guard, and the rest of the emergency services, and held a meeting with the operation leaders.

The fire, declared on July 9, has already been stabilized and the Junta expects to declare it controlled throughout this Monday, after four days of fighting a fire that has left 13 dead, about 7,000 hectares burned, and the evacuation of around 1,600 people, who have already been able to return to their homes. On the ground, 40 ground personnel and three fire trucks remain deployed to consolidate the perimeter and prevent possible reactivations.

Sánchez took advantage of his intervention to highlight the joint response of the administrations. “When we talk about the State, we talk about everyone,” he said, referring to the work carried out by municipalities, the Provincial Council, the Junta of Andalusia, and the General State Administration. In his view, institutional coordination has been the best possible response to a tragedy of this magnitude, “what citizens demand from us,” and has allowed mobilizing all the necessary resources to combat the fire and begin planning assistance for those affected. He also had words of recognition for the professionals who participated in the operation, “public servants who risk their lives to defend the lives of their compatriots.”

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Moreno, for his part, also insisted on that idea of cooperation, thanking the “networked” work carried out by all administrations and the effort of the hundreds of personnel deployed in recent days. But he wanted to emphasize another concern by referring to the change in behavior of large forest fires. Los Gallardos, he said, is an example of those “new generation” fires that are “increasingly dramatic and complex to control,” favored by a climatic context that, in his opinion, will make Andalusia face “a very hard, very difficult summer.” The abundance of vegetation after the winter rains, he explained, has now become perfect fuel for fires of enormous intensity, so he appealed to prudence, self-protection, and always following the instructions of emergency services.

In fact, the Andalusian leader confirmed that so far this summer “we have three times more burned area than last year,” and sent a message to the population to be “prepared” and “alert.”

While the fire enters its final phase, the administrations have begun organizing assistance for the victims. The Junta is already working on restoring services, communications, and affected homes and has opened offices to coordinate aid.

For his part, Sánchez, who emphasized that these climate emergencies affect not only Spanish territory but also Europe, assured that the central government has made “all the necessary State resources” available to Almería, both during the extinguishing efforts and in the investigation to clarify the origin of the fire. The president guaranteed, on the other hand, that the Executive “will lend a hand” in the recovery of the area and to support those affected through public resources that help mitigate the damage and speed up the return to normality.

The institutional agenda will continue in the afternoon with the visit of the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, scheduled for 2:45 p.m.

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