The fire in the Collserola natural park has burned an area of 54 hectares and by noon this Wednesday it was stabilized, although not extinguished, as confirmed by the Barcelona Fire Department. This time the fire, pushed by the wind, approached the row of houses closest to the mountain in the Torre Baró neighborhood. As a precaution, 35 residents of Castellví and Lliçà streets were evacuated from their homes, to which they returned before eleven at night. Regarding the origin and causes of the flames, the Mossos d’Esquadra and Rural Agents are investigating the starting point. A place where the police found a lighter and a cigarette butt they are working with, along with a list of some suspects. But the same sources warn that it is still too early to draw conclusions.
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The confinements of residents in the neighborhoods near the flames, Torre Baró and Ciutat Meridiana, in Nou Barris, were lifted early on Wednesday. The head of the Barcelona Fire Department explained that they remained concerned about secondary hotspots that continued to burn, fanned by the wind. “This situation calls for caution before declaring it controlled, although we have it contained. We are optimistic,” he said.
Police and Rural Agents investigate the origin of the fire, which cannot yet be confirmed as intentional
The fire, on which ground units from the Barcelona Fire Department and the Generalitat have worked, reinforced by aerial means, kept three roads closed all day (the cemetery road, Roquetes alta, and the one connecting Horta with Cerdanyola) and forced the closure of metro stations in the two affected neighborhoods. The drop in temperatures during the night and the increase in humidity helped with the night’s work, although the wind reappeared strongly with the first rays of light, reigniting the scattered hotspots.
On Tuesday afternoon, Civil Protection sent a first EsAlert message to the mobile phones of 14,000 residents of Torre Baró and Ciutat Meridiana, asking them to stay at home, more for the consequences of the smoke than for the fire itself, and to leave the area where emergency services were operating, free of residents and curious onlookers. The second message had to be sent due to the little attention some paid to the confinement order. Late in the afternoon, the City Council activated the Municipal Action Plan in the Emergency phase.
The mayor thanked the collaboration of the neighborhood associations of Torre Baró and Ciutat Meridiana, who this Wednesday raised their voices to warn the administrations about the “neglect” that, in their opinion, the Collserola mountain suffers.
At the control center, in addition to emergency services, rural agents are operating, disinfecting the wheels of all vehicles entering and leaving the park, dressed in white overalls, because mobility restrictions due to swine fever, decreed in November last year, are still in force.
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