The Military Emergency Unit commemorated its XXI anniversary and the day of its patron saint on Wednesday at Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base, with a tribute to Corporal Javier García Sancho, who died in the line of duty on August 16 during the Peñas de Riglos fire.
The Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base hosted the central event of the XXI anniversary of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the celebration of its patron saint, the Virgin of the Rosary, on Wednesday, October 7. The ceremony was presided over by the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral General Teodoro Esteban López Calderón, as reported by the Ministry of Defence via defensa.gob.es.
The event began with a review of the troops, followed by the awarding of decorations. Afterwards, the head of the UME, Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Marcos Izquierdo, delivered a speech in which he remembered Corporal Javier García Sancho, who died in the line of duty on August 16 during the forest fire in Peñas de Riglos (Huesca).
Love for the homeland is also measured in lives saved, towns defended, and nature protected,” stated General Marcos.
The lieutenant general highlighted the dedication “to the very last consequences” of Corporal García Sancho and concluded his address with a call for collective effort: “In the face of tragedy, there is no room for division, only the common effort of all to protect what unites us most: Spain.”
Following the tribute to the fallen, the UME anthem was sung, and an aerial display was held with three helicopters from the Emergency Helicopter Battalion (BHELEME II) of the Army. This was followed by a motorised parade, and finally, the participating units marched on foot in the military parade.
The UME was created on October 7, 2005, by agreement of the Council of Ministers. Its current strength is 3,500 personnel, organised into a General Headquarters, an Emergency Support and Intervention Regiment (RAIEM), a Transmission Battalion (BTUME), the Military Emergency School (EMES), and five emergency intervention battalions (BIEM) distributed across Spain: Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), Morón de la Frontera (Sevilla), Bétera (Valencia), Zaragoza, and San Andrés del Rabanedo (León).
This distribution allows for the deployment of personnel to any point in the national territory in less than four hours. So far this year, the UME has exceeded 850 interventions in Spain and abroad, of which 68 correspond to 2026. Of the total historical missions of 855, 601 have been in forest fires.
This year, the unit has participated in 41 forest fires, including those in the Sierra Oeste of Madrid and Ávila, the Peñas de Riglos fire, and those in Los Gallardos and Niebla in Andalusia. In July, the rapid simultaneous spread of three fires that started in Burgohondo (Ávila), San Martín de Valdeiglesias (Madrid), and Almorox (Toledo), separated by just 20 kilometres, with an extreme heat wave, winds exceeding 30 km/h, and very low humidity, necessitated the activation of a joint operation involving the UME.
In the event of a declared national interest emergency, state plans stipulate that the UME chief general assumes the Operational Direction of the Emergency (DOE), as occurred this summer during the forest fires in the Sierra Oeste of Madrid.
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