August 6, 2012

Winds fan fires in western Spain

Hundreds are evacuated and phone service to one of the Canary Islands is at risk of being cut off.

The Associated Press

MADRID - Wildfires fanned by fierce winds and high temperatures raged across a western Spanish region and on the Canary Islands on Sunday, threatening to cut off phone contact with one island, killing an emergency worker and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, officials said.

click image to enlarge

A wildfire burns in La Palma, Spain, Saturday. Wildfires raged across two Canary islands through Sunday.

The Associated Press

A 35-year-old man from an army emergency services unit died in a vehicle accident while battling the wildfires in the Extremadura region, and three others were injured. A fourth firefighter had to be treated after inhaling smoke.

Extremadura Interior Ministry spokesman German Lopez Iglesias said about 300 vacationers had to be evacuated from a campsite in the heavily wooded hills of the Sierra de Gata area near the Portuguese border.

Forest fires were also raging on the Canary Islands of La Gomera and La Palma and there were hundreds more evacuations there, said Javier Gonzalez Ortiz, a security official for the islands off the northwest coast of Africa.

A statement on the Canary Islands government website said a large fire had affected the southeastern area around Villa de Mazo in La Palma, where some 70 people had been moved to safety by the Red Cross and close to 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) had been affected by flames.

"Firefighters are finding the greatest difficulty in La Gomera," and at least 600 people had been evacuated, the statement said.

The causes of the fires are unknown, but several days of high temperatures have contributed to dry conditions throughout Spain, even on the normally verdant La Palma -- one of the least developed and greenest of the Canary Islands.

 

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