Spain once again faces a wave of forest fires that maintains active or not yet extinct outbreaks in several communities, including the Community of Madrid, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Aragon, Andalusia and Murcia. The most serious situation is concentrated in the southwest of Madridwhere the fires of Villa del Prado, San Martin de Valdeiglesias and other nearby centers have ended up forming a large front, and in Burgohondoin Avila. The Government has declared the emergency of national interest in Madrid and the province of Avilawhile the fires of Almoroxin Toledoand The Shitin Guadalajaraevolve in a more favorable way.
Google Maps It can become a useful tool to avoid these areas when traveling by road. If a route passes through an affected area or near a fire, the application can display an alert about the itinerary and superimpose an estimate of its perimeter on the map for the driver to check if he is approaching the affected area. You can also send location-based notificationsalthough they will depend on the phone configuration.
It is not necessary to be driving to consult this information, since it is enough to open Google Maps, search for the area or move around the map to locate the fires represented. Google globally launched its wildfire layer in 2021while detailed front tracking and location-based notifications They arrived in Spain in July 2024.
It can be used both from the application and from the web version and is accessed by pressing or clicking on the icon ‘Layers’ and selecting ‘Forest fires’. The fires detected by Google are represented by a red icon with flames or a small red circle. By tapping or clicking on them, you access the information available about the event. On some devices, the map can switch to a satellite view when selecting the fire, although it is possible to return to the usual view by choosing ‘Predetermined’ as a map type.
Google Maps organizes official and media information about active fires in a tab that opens by tapping or clicking on the corresponding icon. Google calls this section ‘Crisis sheet’although in the web version it is displayed as a side panel.
The layer uses color coding to represent the approximate extent of the fire. The areas in red indicate the areas in which active fires have been detected, while the color yellow identifies those that are least likely to have continued activity. These limits are estimates and They should not be interpreted as an exact delimitation of the fire.
The crisis sheet may include help and information from local authoritiesregional or national, with links to emergency numbers, web pages or posts on social networks. The amount and type of information available will depend on each fire and the data that Google has been able to collect.
When additional information exists, the crisis sheet also shows headlines, related articles and data on fire containment. Depending on the case, a link appears ‘More news on Google’ and a carousel with information published by different media about the fire that is being consulted.
This layer is part of the Google Maps crisis alert systemwhich also displays information about earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms. However, not all of these emergencies have a specific layer that the user can activate manually, as happens with forest fires.
Google uses thermal images and data from different satellites to detect changes in heat patterns and estimate the extent of fires. This system has limitations and may underestimate the affected surfaceshow a contour that differs several kilometers from the real one or do not represent some active fires. For this reason, the company itself warns that The information is approximate and it is recommended to always follow the instructions of the authorities.
The Google tool once again demonstrates its usefulness with this layer of fires, but anyone who is in an affected area must Always turn to official sources to obtain the latest information on the extent of the fire and the danger it entails.. This Friday, the files for some fires showed a last update up to 19 hours ago, a period in which the fire can advance a lot, while others had been updated just a few minutes before.