The Junta de Andalucía has lifted the lockdown of the urban centre of Benahavís after a favourable night in extinguishing the fire, which has affected 329 hectares. Three urbanisations remain under preventive evacuation.
The Junta de Andalucía has lifted the lockdown imposed on the urban centre of Benahavís due to the favourable evolution of the fire that broke out this Sunday at 12:37 in the area of the ermita del Rosario. The measure, communicated to residents at 14:37 on Sunday via the ES-Alert system, was lifted after the firefighting efforts secured an area between the Castillo de Montemayor and the Benahavís road (A-7175) on both flanks, as explained by the Councillor for the Presidency and Emergencies of the Junta, Antonio Sanz, who was present at the command post set up at the base of the Emergency Group of Andalucía (GREA) in the locality.
The regional official summarised the night with a message on social media X: "Good work during the night allows us to lift the lockdown of the urban centre of Benahavís." The decision does not affect the residents of three urbanisations (Montemayor, La Coja, and Benahavís Hills), where preventive evacuation remains in place.
The fire has affected 329 hectares of pine forest and scrubland and remains in an emergency phase, operational situation 1. The only area with activity is at the head of the fire, to the northwest, in a point located north of the Montemayor urbanisation and near the area that was affected by the large fire in Pujerra in June 2022. The emergency management aimed precisely for the fire to advance towards an already burned area with lower forest density. "It has been an intense night, as we expected, but it has yielded good results," Sanz assessed.
During the night, more than 200 firefighters have been working, a number that remains this morning with the addition of seven aerial resources: one command helicopter, three medium helicopters, two light amphibious planes, and one coordination plane. The ground operation now includes eight groups of forest firefighters, three Reinforcement Brigades from the Infoca Plan (Brica), six fire engines, two bulldozers, and technical units for meteorology, communications, and medical support, as well as six fire crews from the Provincial Consortium and Marbella. Throughout the day, the ground operation is expected to reach 19 specialist firefighter groups, four Brica, 11 fire engines, and two bulldozers, with more aerial resources to be added if the situation requires it.
The efforts are focused on consolidating the perimeter and diverting towards the northern area of Montemayor, with intermittent activity and no continuous front in very unfavourable sloped terrain. The most active area is located to the west of the Castillo de Montemayor, where direct attacks were carried out during the night using water lines. Sanz assured that "the growth of the head has been halted," although he warned of possible "re-ignitions in the hot spots." The councillor hopes that "the evolution continues to be favourable" in the coming hours, "unless conditions change."
For today, a lower wind intensity is expected, with a more complicated period between 12:00 and 16:00 due to gusts of up to 35 kilometres per hour (compared to 50 on the first day), a temperature of 28 degrees, and a relative humidity of 50%.
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