Infoca is the fire-fighting service that tackles each year the forest and mountain fires across Andalucia. According to the regional opposition party, Infoca in Granada neither has the manpower, materiel or budget to combat the season’s fires, despite claims to the contrary from Provincial Delegate for the Junta, María José Sánchez.

Putting aside the fact that the Granada PP appears to have overlooked similar deficiencies in the regions where their party rules, fruit of the economic crisis, it does raise concerns that after a particularly dry winter and spring, Infoca might not be prepared, thanks to under funding, when the fires start in earnest.

The Junta’s own report states that there will be a cut back in both manpower and vehicle use: one of the three mother, refuelling tankers will not be used, for example. The PP draws attention to the 10% cut in manpower, meaning that 58 fewer fire fighters will be employed, whilst the fuel allotment for forest guards has been reduced to 70 euros, which, according to the PP, does not even cover the first ten days of the month.

Infoca has the task of watching over 4.4-million hectares of woodland, 1.4m of which is public land, which is why Infoca and Environment workers staged a protest over the cuts on Wednesday the 20th of June.

There is undoubtedly cause for concern and members of the public will probably not understand why there have been no cuts in the numbers of politicians, rather than in the ranks of the much-needed fire fighting workers…

(News: Andalucia)