Perilous Times and Climate Change
Wildfires continue to ravage eastern Spain
(AFP)
MADRID — Hundreds of firefighters Wednesday battled dozens of wildfires
that have ravaged some 2,500 hectares of land in Spain's eastern
Valencia region, regional authorities said.
Spain's Defence Minister Carme Chacon, who visited the region,
described one of the fires, around the towns of Ontinyent and
Bocairent, as "one of the fiercest" anywhere in the country so far this
year.
That blaze has destroyed some 1,900 hectares, the interior minister of
the Valencia regional government, Serafin Castellano, told a news
conference.
It is one of several wildfires that broke out overnight in the Valencia
region and have destroyed a total of 2,457 hectares (6,068 acres), much
of it forest and brushland, he said.
At least three of the fires are suspected to have been deliberately
set, Castellano said.
He declined to say how many people had been evacuated, but Spanish
public television reported some 1,200 people were asked to leave their
homes as a precautionary measure.
Hundreds of firefighters backed by water-dropping planes and
helicopters have been battling the blazes since early Tuesday.
Fires in the northwestern region of Galicia destroyed thousands of
hectares of land in recent weeks. One of those caused the deaths of two
firemen last month.
A fire on the Spanish Mediterranean resort island of Ibiza last month
forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 partygoers and scorched
hundreds of hectares.