Forest fires have devastated a total of 3,697 hectares in Spain during the month of January, seven times more than in January 2022, according to data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO). In addition, it represents 53% more than the average number of hectares burned in the last decade.
This data places January 2024 as the fourth in the last ten years with the most forest fires; behind January 2022, when approximately 6,273 hectares were burned, from 2017 (6,406 hectares) and 2019 (4,345 hectares). Besides, During this month a large fire has been recorded (more than 500 hectares), something that has only happened in the months of January 2017, 2021 and 2022 in the last ten years. In addition, there have been 166 attempts and 107 fires of more than 1 hectare.
The majority of these incidents occurred in the Northwest, with more than half of forest fires, 53.48%, while the Mediterranean area accounted for 33.70%, the interior communities 12.09% and the Canary Islands ( 0.73%).
Refering to tree area affected during this January, the northwest area was the most affected with almost 79%the interior communities 12.62% and the Mediterranean area, 8.53%.
In all of last year, fires devastated 89,068 hectares in Spain67% less than in 2022, although it became the fourth worst year of the decade.
……………….
Contact of the Environment section: crisisclimatica@prensaiberica.es