One of the fires underway this Thursday was reportedly caused by lightning that struck Catalonia on Wednesday. Authorities are on high alert due to high temperatures in this drought-stricken area in the south of the region.
This Thursday, June 16, three fires are active in Catalonia. The main ones are in the municipality of Artesa de Degre and in Castellar de la Ribera, near Lleida. Another outbreak of fire has been reported in Corbera d’Ebre in Terra Alta.
\ud83c\udf21\ufe0f Avui es tornaran a superar els 40 Graus a Ponent, però the temperature it parararà sobretot in the counties of Girona.
\u203c\ufe0f Cada cop és més probable a repunt de la calor during els primers dies de la setmana que ve.
\ud83c\udfa7 Escolteu the weather forecast:https://t.co/MfJxJcOTyv pic.twitter.com/AGLoIOp1XP
— ARA Meteo (@ARAmeteo) June 16, 2022
Two fire fronts are progressing very quickly in the fire that broke out on Wednesday in the town of Castellar de la Ribera, near Lleida, where 300 hectares have already been devastated. The lightning would be the origin of this fire eruption.
Hi ha dos incendis forest a Castellar de la Ribera (Solsonès). El Primer concerns a preliminary area of 40 ha, located in the southern part (at 21:00 on the pictures taken??).
El Segon covers a preliminary area of 13.94 hectares located on the north side. pic.twitter.com/V39GTYzIxS
— Rural Agents (@agentsruralscat) June 15, 2022
In the municipality of Artesa de Segre, 500 hectares have been engulfed in flames since the fire began on Wednesday. Dozens of people were reportedly detained while other residents were evacuated by emergency services.
\u26a0\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25 Tres grans incendis crèmes sense control a Catalunya, specifically, as pobles d’Artesa de Segre (la Noguera) , Corbera d’Ebre (Terra Alta) and Castellar de la Ribera (Solsonès) en plena onada from calorhttps://t.co/NXTWJ8awod pic.twitter.com/c26U2unu5t
— ElCaso.cat (@elcasocat) June 16, 2022
28 ground teams are fighting these fires with air support.
In all, the three fires burned about 1,100 hectares, and 155 firefighters were mobilized to douse the blazes.