The Prime Minister was due to visit the island of La Palma this Sunday, where four thousand people were evacuated this weekend past from a Level 2 wildfire which has been blazing out of control on the south of the island since Friday night. Help was called in from an emergency military unit based on Tenerife, and by Sunday, some 5000 personnel were fighting to control the blaze. The fire was reported to have closed roads, destroyed homes and brought down power lines and mobile phone installations in some areas. High temperatures and winds up to 80 km an hour were hampering the fire-fighting effort on Saturday. It’s understood between 1,500 and 2,000 hectares of land have been affected by the blaze. The flames had reached part of the Cumbre Vieja Natural Park by Sunday. Of the wildfire’s three fronts, the western front was contained over Saturday night, and the flames were no longer advancing northwards on Sunday, but the greatest cause for concern was on the eastern front, in the upper part of Mazo. Here, fire fighters on the ground were forced to retreat as the flames took hold in a densely-wooded area, leaping across the tree tops. Huge columns of smoke could also be seen.
ABC newspaper said the fire could have been started by fireworks during a local fiesta.
Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, gave details this Friday of the area destroyed by forest fire so far this year: more than 75,000 hectares, most of which have fallen to the flames in the past two weeks. It’s more than 80% more than the area destroyed over the 12 months of 2008, with more than 50 people arrested in just the past two months on suspicion of setting many of these fires. The wildfire affecting Valle del Tiétar, in the south west of Ávila province, Castilla y León, was meanwhile brought down to a Level 0 Alert on Friday evening after killing two people and destroying 5,000 hectares. A close watch was being kept at the scene this weekend in case the flames should revive.
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