Drought, heat and strong winds make it difficult to extinguish a forest fire in southern Spain. Around 200 firefighters are on duty while more than 900 people have been brought to safety.
[Madrid -] A fire on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain destroyed almost 2,200 hectares of forest in less than 24 hours – an area equivalent to more than 3,000 soccer fields.
Because of the flames that have been blazing since Wednesday evening at the foot of the Sierra Bermeja mountain range, not far from the coastal community of Estepona, 939 people had to be brought to safety on Thursday, said the emergency service of the Andalusia region. It was not initially announced whether these included foreign tourists.
The AP7 motorway, which is also very busy by tourists in summer, and two country roads had to be closed because of the thick smoke. In addition to Estepona, the municipality of Benahavís is also affected. Both are in the province of Malaga. At least two houses were hit by the flames, the authorities said.
According to the authorities, the heat, which currently only falls slightly below 30 degrees at night in Malaga, the drought and strong winds make the extinguishing work more difficult, in which around 200 firefighters took part on Thursday. Among other things, 26 helicopters and fire-fighting planes would also be used. The cause of the forest fire was still unknown on Thursday. [dpa]
