The Balearic Environment Ministry is expecting a “high risk” fire season in the Balearics and has 350 fire fighters on standby and able to quickly deploy from one island to another.
Three helicopters will be operating in Mallorca (two at Son Bonet and one at the Petra base), one in Minorca (S’Arangí) and one in Ibiza (at the Sa Coma operational base).
The state air resources for reinforcement are a Canadair amphibious plane located in Puerto Pollensa and a cargo plane on the ground at Son Bonet, which will join the operation on the 1st of July.
The councillor for the Environment and Territory, Miquel Mir, the director general of Natural Spaces and Biodiversity, Llorenç Mas, and the manager of IBANAT, Joan Ramon, presented the forest fire campaign today, which begins on 1 May and will last until 15 October.
The minister has asked the public to “exercise extreme caution and avoid imprudence” in view of the prospect of a high-risk season in which the effects of the “climatic emergency” will once again be felt, with abnormal temperatures, such as those that will be experienced this weekend.
Mir stressed that the main concerns at the moment are the high human pressure forecast for the summer months and the large amount of biomass accumulated in the forests, especially in the Serra de la Tramuntana, as a result of Storm Juliette.
The public company TRAGSA, he said, will continue to work on forest clean-up, while IBANAT staff will focus on the firefighting operation once the emergency work has been completed following the storm.
A careful eye is being kept on the situation this weekend with maximum temperatures set to hit 35ºC.