The Villaviciosa Council takes a step forward and intensifies its fight against forest fires from all fronts. Mission for … which has designed a prevention plan that addresses all kinds of issues and assumptions both to be as prepared as possible and to attack the fire, if it comes to occur, “in the most effective way.” A municipal plan that is the first and, its promoters stand out, the only one, for the moment, in Asturias to enter into force and that this Thursday was released in detail in a day open to the public in the Obrero Athenaeum of the Villa to meet one of its objectives: dissemination to advance prevention.
The Municipal Forest Fire Plan of Villaviciosa covers endless issues. Each population core has been analyzed to determine the risk of fire in each of them, according to issues such as accessibility, fuel deposits surrounding the population, the infrastructure it has and the Fire registration from 2007 to 2022. The result of this analysis is reassuring: “None of them presents a special risk,” said Javier Calleja, technician and municipal engineer of the Villaviciosa City Council and plan coordinator. Although there is a difference between the north and south of the council: «In the southern part the orography is a little worse, with more pending and forest soil closer to the houses. There is a little more risk than in the northern half, but nothing that is alarming, ”he added. In that northern half, the most flat and therefore more mechanized farms predominate.
In any case, the Villaviciosa City Council collects in this plan performances To be performed to improve the current situation, which Infopa qualifies medium risk. Although Calleja explained, the councils surrounding Villaviciosa are more historically affected by this type of fire.
“This plan, a pioneer, will be a fundamental hut in a council with great weight of the forestry sector”
Alejandro Vega
Mayor of Villaviciosa
To improve defenses against fire it is necessary to increase cleaning trails, create belts and have firewalls. The Consistory has already launched and has begun to clear in Mount Cubera, 700 meters from the Maliaya capital: “The report reflected that it was the site with the greatest amount of fuel throughout the council.” Hence, now it is clearing and improving its accesses, something key in case of emergency. And this document also works as a guide that marks how to act.
The risk of each of the council’s population nuclei has been analyzed: “None of them presents a special danger”
Javier Calleja
-Coordinator of the Drafting of the Municipal Fire Plan
Details where are the necessary resources to fight fire and even the chain of command. So that everyone knows what to do and where to go. There is even a list of places to which the population can be evacuated in case it is precise: the sports center, the pediment, the Maliayo College and the Institute, cataloged as large spaces, in addition to different rural schools and even the pawn farm. As for the paths, it is proposed to clean, in two years, about fifty kilometers. It also proposes to place more water points against forest fires. The existing ones are located in the environment of the pawn Cord. And the municipal plan proposes to enable more in Santa Mera, Valdebárcena and Viñón. Today, in addition, the council has seven firewalls, which total an area of 9.18 hectares.
325.148 euros
It is the investment provided by the Villaviciosa City Council within the fire prevention plan.
To develop investments, the City Council plans to sign an agreement with the regional government. The Consistory calculates, through a direct subsidy, a figure of 325,148 euros (counting actions from 2023 to 2026). The project also affects the formation in the prevention of the neighbors and it is not ruled out to carry out workshops in the localities, as was done from the Principality in some councils of the Asturian Southwest.
The mayor of Villaviciosa, Alejandro Vega, indicated in the presentation at the Athenaeum Obrero that they considered that this initiative had to be given “priority”, given that it addresses a problem that affects the forestry sector, of great draft in the municipality. He also highlighted the importance of training citizens and preventing fires as another means of fighting the depopulation of the rural area. “This plan, in which we are pioneers, will be a fundamental tool, which we will incorporate the day -to -day management in many areas,” included in the new Urban Planning Plan of the Council.
In addition to Calleja, the Fire Chief of the Eastern Zone, Eduardo Navarro, participated in the day; Juan Luis Martín Correa, of the EPRIF; Íñigo Fernández, Coordinator of Natural Environment Agents of the Principality; and Javier Vigil Fabián, General Director of Forest Management of the Principality, with the Director General of Local Cooperation and Security, Olmo Ron.
