The Residents' Association of Colmenar Viejo has requested the Ministry of Environment to review the exclusion of the municipality from the High Fire Risk Areas of INFOMA 2026. They seek access to the technical reports justifying the decision.
The Residents' Association of Colmenar Viejo has stepped forward and formally demanded that the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Interior of the Community of Madrid reconsider the exclusion of the municipality from the High Fire Risk Areas (ZAR) included in the Special Civil Protection Plan for Emergency Situations due to Forest Fires, known as INFOMA 2026.
The community organisation not only requests a review of the decision but also demands access to the technical reports and the objective criteria that led the regional Administration to exclude Colmenar Viejo. A decision that, in their opinion, is difficult to justify.
A municipality with all the signs of being ZAR
Colmenar Viejo is, as the Association reminds, the third largest municipality in the entire Community of Madrid. It has a vast forested area, a significant urban-forest interface, and borders natural spaces of great environmental value such as the Regional Park of the Upper Manzanares Basin, El Pardo Mountain, Viñuelas Mountain, Moncalvillo Meadow, and the mountains that connect with the Sierra de Guadarrama.
Additionally, the municipality hosts strategic infrastructures, including one of the largest urban waste treatment complexes in the region. And this is not a theoretical problem: in 2025, a large forest fire between Colmenar Viejo and Tres Cantos highlighted the vulnerability of the area's forest corridor.
The Association emphasises that fires do not recognise administrative boundaries and that their spread depends on factors such as vegetation continuity, weather, or topography. Therefore, it is particularly striking that neighbouring municipalities with similar characteristics are included as ZAR in INFOMA 2026, while Colmenar Viejo has been left out.
What does being a High Fire Risk Area imply?
The community organisation has hastened to clarify that the declaration of a municipality as a High Fire Risk Area is not a warning or an immediate danger to the population. It is a technical classification that identifies those territories where factors increase the likelihood of fire occurrence and spread.
This designation allows for strengthening preventive planning, improving coordination of emergency services, and prioritising actions aimed at protecting the population, natural heritage, and strategic infrastructures. In short, it is better to have it than not to have it.
For all these reasons, the Residents' Association of Colmenar Viejo requests the Community of Madrid to make public the technical reports used to delineate the ZAR, explain the criteria applied to exclude the municipality, and review the decision if it is confirmed that Colmenar Viejo meets the objective factors of danger, exposure, and vulnerability that justify its inclusion.
The Association argues that protection against forest fires should be based exclusively on technical, objective, and transparent criteria, especially when it comes to decisions affecting the safety of residents and the conservation of natural heritage. Meanwhile, the residents of Colmenar Viejo hope that the Ministry of Environment provides a clear response and, above all, that the technical reports are released as soon as possible.
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