A fire devastates Ceuta and burns a large part of its forest area next to the fence with Morocco

The arrival of aerial means and the UME from the Peninsula is expected The flames can be seen from the Isabel I viewpoint Numerous neighbors have not been able to get home and a sports center has been set up to spend the night Monte de la Tortuga, one of the main forest masses of Ceuta burns in flames. The fire has reached the García Aldave hills through which the border perimeter that separates the autonomous city from Morocco runs. The fire has started in the vicinity of the Isabel II viewpoint, near the fence, but the west wind has accelerated its spread in the opposite direction, towards the urban area of ​​the city, which has forced the eviction of dozens of families from the neighborhoods and urbanizations of the outskirts closest to the forest mass, such as Postigo, El Pinar or La Colina. emptied a complex of rural cabins that has been besieged by the flames and, with the help of dozens of volunteers, the facilities of the municipal Zoosanitary Center, the Animal Protection and the Equestrian Center. After midnight, having to do the same with the Temporary Immigrant Stay Center (CETI) located nearby has been ruled out. The UME and alert level 2 The Ceuta Executive chaired by Juan Vivas (PP) has placed the city in alert level 2 and, like the Government Delegation, has activated all its emergency services, which have not been able to contain the advance of the flames helped by the west wind without help, having been unleashed once night fell, of means flights. The Autonomous City has conditioned the La Libertad Sports Center to welcome the evicted people who have not been able to return to their homes, around thirty people. The authorities have not yet provided any information on the origin of the fire, which remains under investigation , nor about its extension, which could become the largest suffered by the city in its recent history. In October 2015, 30 hectares were burned in the same environment in which it has been This Thursday’s fire was unleashed, then attributed to a military shooting exercise with tracer bullets, but the largest dates back to 1993, when 95, 75 wooded areas were burned, almost 5 percent of the total area of ​​the city.