The helitransported base of El Oterico (León) cost almost two million euros, was announced in 2022, and it was highlighted that by the end of 2023 it would be “practically finished.” The firefighters working there in the summer of 2026 have only been able to use it for the aerial means for which it was conceived a few days ago because it did not meet the necessary safety and operational requirements and was not fully completed: “Having it inoperative on August 1 would be a terrible mistake.” The base, with sandstone ground that disables most of its helipads, is simply closed off against livestock by an electric fence set up by the brigadistas, and the fuel tanks have been unsealed for weeks. Despite the recent opening, there is barely any coverage, no landline phone, and the showers do not work in facilities key to controlling the central Leonese mountain, repeatedly hit by fires like those often seen very close from Oterico. A firefighter expresses the disruption caused by recent fires: “It takes us an hour and a half by car and flying would be 15 minutes.”
Read more The Government announces a budget of 25 million euros to care for minors in Ceuta
The problems generated by this base add to the fact that the brigadistas from Camposagrado are displaced there, where there was no drinking water due to a kerosene leak over the pipes. This staff understands the first transfer but sees it as absurd that the previous base was closed knowing that the new one is useless.
A firefighter from León familiar with the situation criticizes that the only protection, a perimeter fence with an electric fence to keep nearby cows out, was arranged by the employees of the León operation themselves: “It’s an electric fence to keep livestock out, how are you going to have a heliport surrounded by an electric fence? It’s a joke.” Keeping cows out does not mean that people cannot access a place where a helicopter valued at two million, almost the same as the complete facilities, lands, at risk of vandalism or damage because it is neither video-monitored nor fenced: “It’s unacceptable, some kids could go to touch something and the next day we would be flying.” The fuel supply hose only reaches one of the seven helipads, a minor issue because the aerial vehicles can be moved, but significant. EL PAÍS has consulted the Environment Department about this base but has not received a response.
The location, this source explains, is positive because it dominates the central Leonese mountain and would be a great support to reinforce fires in any other sensitive sector of the province, but not being halfway done: there is no effective communication, the radio suffers coverage problems, there is no landline phone, and the workers cannot even shower. The suction pump does not work, this informant comments, and after hours among smoke and flames, the colleagues at that site have to go home without cleaning up.
Read more The Junts deputy Isaac Padrós denounces a national police officer for «discriminatory treatment»
“Riello has water supply problems but there are pumps that work,” sighs the informant. He is especially exasperated with the base’s ground, another crucial element that did not allow its use until now. “A lot of sand rises because it is filled ground, it is not operational, it causes lack of safety and visibility. It is mineral soil, grass will not grow, and it is not concrete,” he criticizes, without the subsequent remedies being better: “They came up with the brilliant idea of putting artificial grass nailed with 10-centimeter nails, they have no hold and it’s like nailing it on the beach. They can fly off and hit a helicopter blade.” Now only one of the seven pads is in use because the colleagues are “desperate to work” and have had to put concrete blocks on the artificial grass so it does not “fly away.” “Everything is fixed with patches,” he states.
The firefighters consider that with this burden, areas damaged by the 2025 fires and with much margin still to burn remain very unprotected. “It would have been key in the June and July fire episode in El Bierzo,” he comments, after multiple hotspots that were easily seen from Oterico, with its workers powerless to have to drive an hour and a half to the fire front when flying would be a quarter of an hour. The brigadistas, despite the disruption it causes, admit that with this scenario the Oterico base should not be used due to the high risk it entailed. The ideal would be to return to Camposagrado once the kerosene leak that closed it is resolved: “They could have let us stay there, it has little use now and it is no longer a heliport when it could have been maintained. It has not been replaced but lost, we could return to it and save what remains of the campaign but let’s see which politician reverses a new base.”
Read more At least 17 migrants die trying to reach the Balearic coasts