Spain’s Ministry of Defence has agreed to requests from the Balearic Government and will deploy a tactical sub-group at various locations in the Serra de Tramuntana, on the island of Mallorca, in anticipation of the total eclipse that will occur this Wednesday not only over this island but across the Balearic archipelago.
These troops will complement the 93 forest firefighters already deployed on the largest island in the archipelago, as well as another 23 in Menorca, 39 in Ibiza and six more in Formentera. The Govern plans to increase aerial surveillance flights, as the weather conditions are raising the risk of wildfires on the day of the eclipse. Meanwhile, Maritime Rescue has strengthened its sea operation with 70 professionals for the day of the phenomenon.
But the Army’s deployment in Mallorca will not be limited to Wednesday. The operation is already under way and will last for five days, although the Govern’s spokesman, Antoni Costa, has not specified how many soldiers will be reinforcing the presence of the armed forces on the island. They will focus on tightening access 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 VTCs 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 the closures can be followed on this website (source in Spanish) set up by the Govern.
The event is expected to attract massive crowds in the region. The Balearic Association of Nautical Companies reports that practically all boats have already been chartered to watch it, according to “SER Mallorca”, while Palma’s EMT bus company will run a special bus service to s’Arenal, a peri-urban town south of the capital with a much broader stretch of coastline, as it prepares to close the city beach from 12:00 up to its boundary with Llucmajor.
Across Spain, the Government has launched a major security operation that will deploy 33,600 officers from the National Police and the Civil Guard, under a single command for land, sea and aerial surveillance, in permanent coordination with the Directorate-General for Traffic, which is providing an extra 2,500 staff. 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.