News
Show news feed

Firefighters said on Saturday they had stopped Spain's first major wildfire of the year from spreading further through the eastern Valencia region, where it destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of forest and forced 1,500 residents to abandon their homes, Reuters reported.

More than 500 firefighters supported by 20 planes and helicopters were working to bring the blaze under control near the village of Villanueva de Viver, in the Valencia region, emergency services said on Saturday.

However, they had managed to stop the fire spreading to other areas.

Las Provincias, a regional newspaper, reported police believe that the blaze may have been started by a spark from a machine used to gather brushwood.

The weather will be drier and hotter than usual this spring along Spain's northeastern Mediterranean coast, increasing the risk of wildfires, meteorological agency AEMET had told Reuters last week.

In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land last year, according to the European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System.

!
This text available in   Հայերեն and Русский
Print