Fresh wave of wildfires scorches Spain’s Asturias

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Firefighters are dealing with 41 active wildfires in the northern Spanish region of Asturias on Monday, just eight days after a fresh wave of fires devastated the region.

On Monday, President of Asturias Adrian Barbon told media that authorities will press charges against five individuals suspected of having caused some of the fires that began at the end of March.

He said police are also working on another line of investigation involving at least 10 suspects.

Barbon has called those responsible for starting the fires “terrorists” and vowed they would face time in prison.

This fresh wave of fires is also believed to be the result of deliberate actions.

“It’s clear that something has been organized and that they’re attacking strategic places to cause the most damage. They are burning forested area that is really valuable,” said Oscar Rodriguez, head of the region’s emergency services on Monday.

He acknowledged several “hypotheses” about who is behind the fires, which have scorched around 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) so far, but said it is still too early to know.

The theories emerging about who is behind the mass environmental destruction are varied.

Some say it is farmers trying to make space for grazing, although many areas burned were not potential farmland. Others suggest it is firefighters who began a strike last Monday. Political motivations are another leading hypothesis, as are organized pyromaniacs.

Meanwhile, head of the energy research firm ITERH has called the theories that clean energy interests are behind the fires “fake news” that aims to “discredit clean energy.”

What is for sure is that unseasonably hot and dry conditions have been gripping Asturias, and the rest of Spain, in recent days and weeks.

On Monday, Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET confirmed that March was the second hottest and driest of this century.