The cost of the forest fire which began in Albacete and destroyed 1,370 hectares of lower mountain slopes, including natural park land in Moratalla, has been estimated at more than 10 million euros.
The Presidential Council has presented a technical report evaluating the environmental damage and the cost of recuperating the area.
The Head of the Council, Manuel Campos, has pronounced the level of damage as “elevated and extensive due to the virulence of the flames during the early hours of the catastrophe, the extent of the forest terrain affected and the high grade of environmental protection in the area.”
The provisional evaluation of the damage and the cost of the extinction of the fire has been set at 10,274,573 euros. This has been broken down into environmental damage to protected forest (1,272 hectares) and unprotected forest (48 hectares) costing 9,193,775 euros; damage to infrastructures: 756,120 euros; the cost of the intervention by the emergency services, Plan Infomur: 196,275 euros and the costs of extinction: 128,403 euros.
