The Ministry of Defence has agreed to requests from the Balearic Government and will deploy a tactical unit at several points in the Serra de Tramuntana, on the island of Mallorca, ahead of the total eclipse due to take place this Wednesday not only on this island, but across the Balearic archipelago.
The troops will thus join the 93 forest firefighters deployed on the largest island in the archipelago, as well as 23 in Menorca, 39 in Ibiza and another six in Formentera. The regional government plans to increase aerial surveillance flights, as weather conditions heighten the risk of wildfires on the day of the eclipse. Meanwhile, Maritime Rescue has strengthened its deployment at sea with 70 professionals for the day of the phenomenon.
But the Army deployment in Mallorca will not be limited to Wednesday. The operation is already under way and will last for five days, although the government spokesperson, Antoni Costa, has not specified how many soldiers will reinforce the presence of the armed forces on the island. They will focus on tightening controls on access routes to the Tramuntana because of the high fire risk in the area in the coming days.
The Ma-10 road will remain closed to general traffic between Andratx and Pollença from 15:00 to 21:00: only residents, property owners, workers, guests, customers with accredited parking and public transport or VTC vehicles will be allowed through. In addition to closing the Ma-10, access will be restricted to numerous viewpoints, coves and natural areas in different municipalities, according to “Diario de Mallorca”. All closures can be checked on this website (source in Spanish) set up by the regional government.
The event is expected to draw large crowds in the region. While the Balearic Association of Nautical Companies reports that practically all boats have already been hired to watch the event, as reported by “SER Mallorca”, Palma’s EMT will introduce a special bus service to s’Arenal, a peri-urban town south of the capital with a much broader stretch of coastline, while preparing to close the city beach from 12:00 up to its boundary with Llucmajor.
Across Spain, the Government has activated a large-scale security operation that will mobilise 33,600 officers from the National Police and the Civil Guard, under a single command for land, sea and air surveillance, in permanent coordination with the Directorate-General for Traffic, which is providing an extra 2,500 personnel. The total number of journeys is expected to exceed one million people; the central government has restricted 123 high-risk areas for environmental reasons or because of evacuation difficulties.