Wildfires blaze in Spain; Portugal, Greece also hit
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday August 10, 3:41 AM
*Wildfires blaze in Spain; Portugal, Greece also hit*
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero broke off his
holiday to see for himself the devastation caused by more than 100
forest fires in the northwest of the country.
Zapatero left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands mid-afternoon for Santiago
de Compostela, regional capital of Galicia, which was still battling
more than 70 fires in the early afternoon, 17 of which were out of control.
The blazes have left three people dead in recent days.
Noting the "very high number of fires" Zapatero saluted the emergency
services' firefighting efforts.
Neighbouring states meanwhile rallied round to offer support to Spain.
France and Italy both dispatched two fire-fighting aircraft Wednesday
afternoon on a two-day mission after the European Commission said Madrid
had requested three Canadair fire-fighting airplanes, five helicopters
equipped with special water buckets and 20 firetrucks.
Portugal, itself afflicted by fires of its own, said it would send
around 60 firefighters and 19 fire trucks to Galicia after Interior
Minister Antonio Costa cited his country's "duty of solidarity with Spain."
The Portuguese group of firefighters were due to work over a period of
seven days but Lisbon added that, given its own problems with fires, it
could not relinquish any aircraft.
The deputy leader of the Galician regional government, Anxo Quintana,
told Cadena Sur radio on Tuesday evening that more than 10,000 hectares
(more than 24,700 acres) had been affected.
More than 1,200 soldiers have been sent to the region to help coordinate
evacuations, while more than 50 fire-fighting airplanes and 6,500
firefighters battled the blazes.
Environment Minister Cristina Narbona, lamented that "the situation has
worsened despite an increase in resources."
Several people who braved journeys by car through the affected region
took pictures of what they had seen along the way, with Spanish
newspaper El Mundo publishing a selection of the most spectacular.
One, taken in the early afternoon, showed a skyline pitch black, save
for the flames, while another amateur snapper described the city of
Orense as "surrounded by a ring of fire."
Although Galicia suffers from massive forest fires each year, the
government has had to deploy "unprecedented" resources this summer.
Over the border in Portugal, which has also seen high temperatures and a
wave of fires since last week, over 1,400 firefighters backed by 400
vehicles battled 21 blazes Wednesday, 14 out of control, the national
fire service said.
Fires were reported in ten of mainland Portugal's 18 administrative
districts as temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees
Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country, forcing the closure of several
roads.
One wind-fueled blaze near the southern city of Setubal, home to
Portugal's third-largest port, was threatening dozens of homes,
emergency services workers said.
About 100 firefighters backed by two water-dropping helicopters were at
the scene of that fire.
Meanwhile a violent fire started Tuesday evening in an illegal rubbish
dump in Greece, in the Corinth region, west of Athens, damaging several
hundred hectares of forest and arable land, firefighters said Wednesday.
Some 300 hectares have already been burned and three villages were
evacuated overnight as a precaution, said Prokopis Byzas, deputy mayor
of Evrostinis where the fire broke out.