A forest fire declared this morning in La Bisbal d’Empordà has already burned 2,300 hectares and keeps around 10,000 people confined in several Costa Brava municipalities.
The fire, the most serious of the year in Catalonia, started near the GI-660 road and advanced quickly toward the Les Gavarres massif, driven by the tramontana wind. Mossos d’Esquadra detained a worker for allegedly starting the flames by using a radial saw in a maximum-risk area.
More than 400 Generalitat firefighters and 100 members of the Military Emergency Unit are working to stabilize the blaze. Civil Protection maintains confinements in Calonge, Platja d’Aro, Santa Cristina d’Aro and other municipalities, and has asked residents of the Barcelona metropolitan area to avoid traveling to the zone.
President Salvador Illa will travel tomorrow to the operations center. Firefighters expect the wind change overnight to reduce the fire’s intensity, although they warn that the situation will remain complex.
