A Dutch company involved in reforestation started a wildfire in Spain

A DUTCH company involved in reforestation started a wildfire in Spain which has caused damage to 14,000 hectares of land in Ateca (Aragon) and seen thousands evacuated.

The fire started on July 18 at this reforestation project undertaken by Land Life while one of their contractors was using a retro-spider excavator to prepare the soil to plant trees later this winter.

The operators alerted the emergency services and teams started working non-stop to control the fire and quickly established the fire perimeter.

In a statement a spokesperson for the company said “We sympathize deeply with the feelings of the local community who had to be evacuated from their homes and see their landscape severely damaged.

“Since the beginning of the emergency, we have offered our help and collaboration to the authorities. We will continue to follow up on anything we can do in this situation.

“We want to emphasise that the contractor, a local company with extensive experience in the area, had the appropriate authorisation issued by the local and regional authorities.

“In addition, Land Life requires all contractors to follow the preventive measures recommended by the authorities in these extreme drought and heat conditions.

“Land Life employees and management are deeply affected by the consequences of this devastating fire.

“Land Life was founded with the clear mission to restore nature, ecosystems and degraded land worldwide and we are a team of passionate professionals committed to the environment.

“We have opened an investigation to clarify what happened and to determine responsibilities and we will share the results with the authorities and the public as soon as we have them.

“From Land Life, we send our support and solidarity to all affected people and the emergency teams involved.”

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