It’s surprising that we still get hill fires in winter, which was the case on Monday, breaking out in the Órgiva area of the Alpujarra.

The high winds made things much more difficult and at one point 21 residents and six staff had to be temporarily evacuated from a home for the elderly. They were transferred to another such establishment in Órgiva.

The emergency number 112 received around 30 calls on Monday all around 07.00h, reporting a fire in an area known as Jubiley, which lies between the municipalities of Órgiva, Torvizcón and Almegíjar; i.e., on the south side of the Sierra Nevada.

The Infoca fire-fighting body, which has its capacity reduced during the winter months so that aircraft can be serviced, sent in four teams with a total of 24 personnel, four fire trucks, a field medical unit and a mobile meteorological unit.

No aircraft were used during the whole of Monday because of the high winds, although Infoca hoped to be able use them during the later half of Tuesday.

All during Monday night a team of fire fighters stayed at the scene to prevent the fire crossing the road that links Almegíjar and Bérchules.

The fire extended as far as Almegíjar and La Taha yesterday before it was “estabilizado.” However, until the wind finally dies Infoca will be hard pressed to be able declare it is extinguished completely. Estabilizado basically means that the fire is ‘contained.’

Update: declared extinguished at 16.00 on the 30th after affecting just over 300 hectares.

(News: Órgiva, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)