San Martín de Trevejo approves the ordinance against fires on peri-urban land

The City Council of San Martín de Trevejo has definitively approved the Municipal Ordinance for the Prevention of Forest Fires in the Peri-urban Area, as no claims were filed during the public exhibition period. The initial plenary agreement is thus elevated to definitive status, and its full text is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Cáceres, number 0210, corresponding to Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Section I - Local Administration, pages 24783 to 24794 (CVE: BOP-2026-5126), in compliance with article 70.2 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, on the Bases of the Local Regime.

The regulation is in the nature of an urban and rural police ordinance and is issued under the protection of Law 3/2019 on the guarantee of municipal autonomy of Extremadura, Law 39/2015 on the Common Administrative Procedure, Law 5/2004 on the prevention and fight against forest fires in Extremadura, and Decree 260/2014, which regulates fire prevention in the autonomous community. It is proposed as a complementary municipal instrument to regional and state regulations, with specific attention to the urban-forest interface.

A 50-meter protection strip

The core of the ordinance is the Municipal Peri-urban Forest Fire Prevention Plan (PPPI), a technical document that delimits the affected areas and whose determinations are mandatory for both the landowners and the City Council itself. The peri-urban strip is configured perimetrically around the urban center with an average width of 400 meters from the urban land limit in the nuclei included in any of the High Forest Fire Risk Zones of Annex I of Decree 260/2014, of December 2.

Within that strip, a protection band with a minimum width of 50 meters from the limit of the urban center is established. Its configuration includes a vegetation-free perimeter line of 5 meters adjacent to the urban limit and, subsequently, a protection area until the 50 meters are completed, where fuel reduction treatments and self-protection measures must be carried out.

The obligated parties are the owners, usufructuaries, and tenants of the affected plots; when the direct and beneficial ownership belong to different persons, the obligation falls upon the holder of the beneficial ownership. The treatments must be carried out annually and, as a general rule, before June 1 of each year, at the beginning of the high-danger period.

Buildings, access, and water points

In plots with buildings, a safety strip of at least three meters is required around the perimeter, completely free of vegetation in its vertical projection, and the plot must be kept free of waste or debris. Vulnerable points—isolated buildings, installations, equipment, or singular infrastructures—must have this three-meter strip and an external protection area that extends the band up to 30 meters.

The ordinance also mandates the maintenance of accesses and roads in trafficable conditions, the existence of maneuvering spaces in dead-end roads, and the availability of operational water points, in accordance with Annex V of the Order of October 24, 2016, which approves the technical regulations of the regional prevention plan. Municipal technical services will carry out inspections with the status of authority agents and may require the execution of the works.

Fines of up to 3,000 euros

The sanctioning regime distinguishes three levels:

• Minor infractions: up to 750 euros.
• Serious infractions: from 751 to 1,500 euros.
• Very serious infractions: from 1,501 to 3,000 euros.

In the event of non-compliance with the requirements, the City Council may subsidiarily execute the works at the expense of the obligated party, with the recovery of expenses enforceable via executive action according to article 102 of Law 39/2015, and act immediately without prior notice when there is a serious or imminent risk. The text publishes the complete articles, although it numbers two different sections as article 21: the municipal management of abandoned plots and the liability for infractions.

An administrative appeal may be filed against the agreement before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Extremadura, based in Cáceres, within two months from the day following publication, according to article 46 of Law 29/1998. The announcement appears signed in San Martín de Trevejo on October 27, 2026, by the mayor-president, Ismael Frade Ambrosio.

The regulation transfers to the owners of peri-urban and urban land the direct responsibility of keeping the surroundings free of plant fuel, with specific deadlines and a system of inspection and sanction that previously did not exist in the municipality. For residents, this implies annual clearing obligations and, for the City Council, the power to intervene on private land when the owner fails to act.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Cáceres, no. 0210, November 3, 2026, Section I - Local Administration, pp. 24783-24794 (official reference: CVE: BOP-2026-5126).