Benidorm will approve tomorrow the project for the development of fire fighting actions in El Moralet urban park

Benidorm City Council's Governing Board will approve the project to develop Public Use Management Actions in the Moralet Natural Area tomorrow. This project is action number 1 of the 2023 Verde Benidorm Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destination and one of the actions requested by the City Council for which a subsidy was obtained.

Benidorm City Council requested, in that year's call, a subsidy to carry out several actions of the Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destinations, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan - Financed with funds from the European Union-NextGeneration-EU, including the Territorial Sustainability Plan of the Valencian Community and coordinated by Turisme Comunitat Valenciana. The budget for this action amounts to 434,808.85 euros.

The executive project to carry out the public use management actions in Moralet, drafted by the engineer José Carlos Sandoval, was delivered to the City Council on July 29 and has a favourable report for approval by the municipal technical engineer.

According to the project above, the actions are summarized in the construction of a perimeter firebreak of the park, pruning and thinning work in wooded areas and the installation of eleven thermal fire cameras. To carry out the works, prior authorization from the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) is necessary, which has already been requested by the council. "We are waiting for the relevant permission to be able to begin the works and that is why we have already sent the request so that the authorization is not delayed so much" indicated the Councilor for Parks and Gardens, José Ramón González de Zárate.

Pruning and thinning work will be carried out in forests with a heavy workload. The pruning will be done at a maximum height of 1.75 metres.

These tasks will also include cutting some dry coniferous specimens with a normal diameter greater than 30 centimetres.

The perimeter firebreak of the park is being made because “as it is a forest park embedded in the urban area, the proximity of the houses implies a certain danger in the event of a fire. This firebreak is being made to protect the houses, in addition to the forestry and thinning work” explained the councillor. The work consists of the complete elimination of the existing shrub layer and undergrowth in a width of five metres. The vegetation will also be cleared of the undergrowth and the felling of the tree trunks over a width of seven metres, and a 13-metre wide strip will be created in which a prudent distance will be established between the tops of the largest trees.

Finally, the project also includes the installation of fire surveillance cameras that “will be equipped with thermal temperature sensors to detect possible fires and sudden changes in temperature and act as soon as possible if necessary,” explained González de Zárate. Eleven cameras of this kind are planned for installation at strategic points in the area for better surveillance and detection.