Drought kills a million pines in Alicante, turning forests into powder kegs
The lack of rainfall between 2023 and 2024 creates a “catastrophic” situation in the mountains of Alicante province
“Catastrophic.” That’s how one firefighter describes the state of Alicante’s forests heading into summer. After a brutal drought between 2023 and 2024, the province is left with more dead pine trees than ever before—more than one million, most of them still lying where they fell.
As a result, the mountains of Marina Alta, Marina Baixa, Baix Vinalopó and Vega Baja are now stacked with fuel, posing a serious wildfire risk in a region already vulnerable to extreme heat, climate change and the growing threat of so-called sixth-generation fires or ‘megafires’.
Despite the return of heavy rain in recent weeks, the fire risk remains dangerously high. March 2024 was the hottest March ever recorded in Europe and the second hottest globally. But the recent rains have done little to dampen the fire hazard left behind by months of drought and unprecedented tree mortality.
With vast stretches of woodland now turned into dangerous tinderboxes, experts fear that in the event of a wildfire, the sheer volume of dead, dried-out wood will make the flames spread faster, burn hotter and become far harder to control.
So far, the regional Ministry of the Environment has managed to remove just 22,500 pine trees, a fraction of the total dead population.
“The accumulation of dead wood resulting from these drought episodes represents a serious risk for potential summer forest fires,” explained Luna Morcillo, PhD researcher at the University of Alicante and the Centre for Mediterranean Environmental Studies (CEAM).
“During the summer, high temperatures and low humidity favour the flammability of dead vegetation, which increases the intensity and speed of fire spread if environmental conditions are favourable.”
“This accumulated wood, along with other strata such as grass in low-moisture conditions, would generate fuel continuity, making extinguishing efforts difficult,” she added. “Preventive management efforts in these forests would be advisable to avoid more vulnerable scenarios in the face of fires.“
From the perspective of firefighters on the ground, the outlook is grim. Vicente Ballester, head of the Mutxamel Heli-transport Unit of the Valencian Forest Firefighters, doesn’t mince words: “The situation in the mountains is not worrying, it is catastrophic.”
He has warned that even if a fire isn’t inevitable, “fire behaviouMr r is more virulent when there is a lot of fuel.” And right now, that fuel is everywhere.
Last summer, weather patterns like the humid easterly winds helped slow drying in the forests. But this year, Ballester said, “the situation is very worrying”, and avoiding disaster will depend as much on human behaviour as on weather conditions.
In other news: New neighbourhood group demands action for Campoamor
Image: Pexels
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