The Catalan government has started work on a key fire containment axis between Girona and Celrà, officials announced on Monday. This initiative aims to stop wildfires from jumping between major forest areas in the region.
Interior Minister Núria Parlon and Agriculture Minister Òscar Ordeig revealed that 14 such containment axes have been identified and designed across Catalonia. These strategic areas are positioned between the main forest massifs and are considered crucial for preventing the rapid spread of large fires.
Collectively, these 14 axes cover more than 200,000 hectares. However, to make them fully operational for fire containment, work is needed on 34,000 of these hectares. While completing all necessary work will take several years, operations have already begun on five priority axes. These include Girona-Celrà, Igualada-Martorell-Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Perafita-Manresa, Argentona-La Roca, and Rasquera-Perelló.
Protecting Forest Areas
The Girona-Celrà axis is one of the first to see action, reflecting its importance in protecting the surrounding areas from devastating wildfires. The government's strategy focuses on creating barriers that can help firefighters control and extinguish blazes more effectively, particularly during dry periods when the risk of large-scale fires is high.
These containment zones are designed to act as natural or managed breaks in the vegetation, making it harder for fires to cross from one large forest block to another. This approach is a long-term investment in Catalonia's fire defence infrastructure, aiming to reduce the impact of future fire seasons on both the environment and local communities.
Moving forward, the government plans to continue implementing these measures across the remaining identified axes. The phased approach acknowledges the scale of the task while prioritising the most vulnerable and strategically important areas first.
