On Wednesday, 19 August 2026, the trade union confederation CCOO Castilla y León of the Junta de Castilla y León accused the authorities of poor organisation during the wildfire response. It said that vehicles and teams had repeatedly been moved “from one province to another” this summer, placing an already stretched workforce under pressure across the board. CCOO cites the response around Fermoselle (province of Zamora): resources that had previously been sent to Ávila reportedly had to be brought back from there. The union says there are massive work-hour and overtime balances “that we cannot make up during the current year”.
CCOO regards the constant shuttling of personnel and equipment as a symptom of an overstretched model. Moving convoys between provinces where resources are already scarce means the entire system is pushed to its limits at the same time. The union is calling for reliable staffing conditions, transparent deployment and allocation plans, and clear command structures that avoid ad hoc redeployments at the expense of rest periods.
The backdrop is a difficult wildfire season in Castilla y León. Numerous ground and air units were mobilised to tackle the major fire near Fermoselle in Zamora, which broke out at the end of July and required extensive and prolonged firefighting in the first days of August. After a period of elevated danger levels, the fire was downgraded in early August and gradually brought under control. The border area along the Duero, around the Arribes del Duero, made firefighting challenging because of the terrain.
The dispute also has a political dimension. The PSOE criticises the regional government for not fully implementing funds promised or budgeted for prevention, staffing and assistance to those affected, and is demanding evidence of how the funds were actually committed. In public statements, the Junta de Castilla y León says that operations were coordinated according to conditions on the ground and resources concentrated where they were most urgently needed amid several major fires burning simultaneously in different provinces, including Ávila. Under such conditions, redeployments were unavoidable, it says.
The assessments therefore differ: CCOO sees a structural failure with consequences for working hours and the safety of emergency crews; the regional government stresses flexibility and operational necessity. Whether this will lead to short-term adjustments to staffing levels, shift schedules and prevention budgets remains unclear. What is clear is that the course of the summer has given fresh impetus to the debate over the capacity and organisation of the firefighting system in Castilla y León.
Editor: Andreas M. Brucker (Article created with AI assistance).