Fire outbreak and rapid spread

The fire was reported at 13:15 on Monday 8 June in the Los Turbios area of Villanueva de los Castillejos, Huelva province. Driven by strong wind gusts of up to 40 km/h and a heavy load of dry brush, it consumed around 100 hectares per hour during its first six hours. By late evening the perimeter had already surpassed 2,000 hectares and the flames had crossed the Odiel River, advancing toward the municipality of Gibraleón.

“The night was complex due to the wind, and the nighttime work focused on preventing the head of the fire from reaching an area with a lot of vegetation.”

Evacuations and road closures

At 17:05 the Emergency Phase, Situation Operative 1 of the Infoca Plan was activated. Shortly afterward, 365 people were preventively evacuated from housing developments, farms and the “el cementerio” neighbourhood in San Bartolomé de la Torre. The evacuees were taken to the municipal sports hall. On Tuesday morning a further 70 people and their animals were evacuated from the rural settlement of El Gimón in Gibraleón as a precaution against shifting winds. The A-495 road remains cut between kilometres 8 and 10.7 due to heavy smoke.

“We are facing a complicated fire that has already affected more than 2,000 hectares and keeps nearly 300 people evacuated.”

Firefighting resources deployed

During Monday’s operations 19 aerial assets and 110 ground personnel worked the blaze, supported by five pumpers, a bulldozer, the Forest Fire Medical Unit and a mobile meteorology unit. The Ministry of Defence deployed two firefighting aircraft from the 43rd Group of the Air and Space Force. Overnight the ground contingent was reinforced to 250 firefighters with 13 pumpers and additional machinery. On Tuesday morning 22 aerial means (helicopters and planes) began to join the effort, along with 140 ground crew and a bulldozer.

Outlook and related fires

The head of the left flank has crossed the Odiel and is now burning through dry eucalyptus forest, which burns slower but with greater intensity. A wind change forecast for the afternoon may complicate conditions on that flank. A separate fire was declared on Tuesday in Guillena, where a pumper and forest crews are already at work. The Huelva area is still recovering from the Alosno fire that burned around 1,000 hectares last Thursday and was declared extinguished on Sunday night.