|
. | . |
|
by Staff Writers Madrid, Spain (AFP) July 19, 2014 Spanish firefighters on Saturday battled forest blazes that have destroyed hundreds of hectares of parched land and forced scores of people from their homes, authorities said. Nearly 500 emergency workers were fighting two blazes in the central province of Guadalajara, according to the regional Castile-la-Mancha agriculture ministry. Firefighters backed by water-dumping aircraft were deployed over an area of 2,100 hectares (3,700 acres) near the village of Cogolludo and 1,000 hectares near the hamlet of Bustares, it said in a statement. Officials said on Friday that those two fires had destroyed at least 1,000 hectares between them, including part of the Sierra Norte national park. The ministry did not say exactly how much land had been burnt by Saturday. Authorities evacuated 180 residents on Friday from four villages threatened by the two fires. The ministry said that residents from one of the villages were able to return on Saturday afternoon. Authorities said the Bustares blaze was accidentally started by a beekeeper and the flames in Cogolludo were sparked by a combine harvester. Elsewhere on Saturday firefighters in Ujue, near the northern city of Pamplona, brought under control a wildfire that had destroyed 900 hectares of land, the Navarra regional police force said. Spain is highly prone to forest fires in summer because of soaring temperatures, strong winds and dry vegetation. Temperatures have soared close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across Spain this week. The heat eased on Saturday but authorities warned that high winds could continue to fan the flames. "We have to pay close attention to how the fire is evolving," said the president of the Castile-la-Mancha regional government Maria Dolores Cospedal, after visiting firefighters in the area. "The situation is much better than 24 hours ago," thanks to the weather, said Cospedal, who is also secretary general of Spain's ruling conservative Popular Party. Up to July 13 this year 29,000 hectares of forest, fields and scrubland were destroyed by wildfires in Spain, according to the agriculture ministry. Last year wildfires destroyed nearly 60,000 hectares. That followed a relatively wet winter and was far lower than the 226,000 hectares of land destroyed in 2012.
Related Links Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |