The wildfire that burned along the Aldenne ridge for six days has been contained, the national fire service confirmed on Wednesday, after a wind shift overnight allowed crews to close the final section of control line above the village of Ferrow.
The blaze — the largest upland fire in Coravia in a decade — burned 3,400 hectares of plantation forestry and rough grazing. Two hamlets were evacuated for three nights; all residents have returned, and no injuries were reported beyond minor smoke inhalation among crews.
At its peak the operation involved 400 firefighters, six aircraft and farm machinery volunteered by the same drought-hit growers whose parched land carried the fire so quickly. “The valley fought for itself,” said incident commander Petra Juhl. “Farmers cut breaks with their own ploughs while our crews held the ridge.”
Investigators believe the fire began at a machinery site on the ridge’s eastern flank; a formal cause report is due within a month. The forestry agency put early losses at $60m, excluding replanting.
The fire service used the containment briefing to repeat a warning it has issued all summer: the drought that primed the ridge remains in force, and the fire-risk index across the valley stays at “extreme” until meaningful rain. “We have contained a fire,” Juhl said. “We have not contained the summer.”