High temperatures and low rainfall make summer a very fire-prone season . If on top of that we go through an extreme and prolonged heat wave like the one we are experiencing these days in Spain, the threat of fire intensifies even more.
That is why, if we live in a field area, we are going to visit it or we have to cross it on a journey, it is very useful to know which forest fires are active in that area . And how can we do it easily? Using Google Maps directly from our mobile, regardless of whether it is iOS or Android.
How to see where there are fires from your mobile
Although Google Maps added this function to its mobile application at the end of 2020, we had to wait several months to have it available in Spain, specifically, until last summer. We are talking about Forest Fire alerts , which not only tell us which ones are active, but also offer us information about them.
IN XATAKA MOBILE
How to check on Google Maps if there are many people in an area, a restaurant or a store
These alerts can be activated in the Google Maps app in two ways, both very simple:
- Activate the forest fires layer: just click on the Layers icon that we find on the right side of the Google Maps application and tap on the ‘Forest fires’ layer. This will activate all the forest fire alerts in the world, so you will only have to explore the map of your area to locate the fires that are around you.
- Search for forest fires: just put “fires” in the search bar of Google Maps and the autocomplete will offer us suggestions to show us all forest fires or forest fires in a certain area.
In either of the two methods, once the forest fire icons appear on the map, we can tap on any of them to see more information , such as the last time the alert was updated, ways to ask for help, latest news highlights about said fire… We can even report road closures to help other users.
