Raging Spanish forest fire kills 12 firefighters

By Victor Fraile

SANTA MARIA DEL ESPINO, Spain (Reuters) – At least a dozen
firefighters were killed on Sunday when they were trapped by a
forest fire raging along a 17-km (10-mile) front in central
Spain, an official said.

A local government source said the death toll from one of
Spain’s worst fire-fighting disasters could be as high as 14.

The fire broke out on Saturday in a nature reserve in the
Guadalajara area east of Madrid after visitors failed to put
out a barbecue properly, officials said.

By Sunday night it was spreading out of control after
scorching thousands of hectares of pine trees and brush.

Parched by a heatwave and the worst drought since the
1940s, much of Spain is like a tinder box and fierce fires are
burning in several regions.

Jose Luis Samper, mayor of the town of Riba de Saelices,
near where the deadly fire began, said a fire patrol that had
come from nearby Soria province to help was surprised by the
flames and trapped in a remote spot.

“After they had been missing for more than two hours, some
people from this village ventured out … and finally found
them. There was only one survivor. We don’t know exactly how
many bodies, but they found at least 12 bodies, absolutely
burned,” he told Spanish state radio.

He said the victims were men and women in their 20s.

Media reports said the patrol, which had two trucks and
three four-wheel-drive vehicles, was caught by a sudden change
in the wind.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega,
who rushed to the scene to get first-hand information, was
booed on arrival by local people demanding more resources to
fight the fire, news reports said.

About 500 people have been evacuated from four villages due
to the blaze.

Strong winds drove the blaze quickly through resinous pines
and flames leaped up to 40 meters high, according to witnesses.

About 150 firefighters tackled the blaze on Sunday on the
ground and from the air. As night fell, they were cutting fire
breaks to try to halt the advance of the blaze.

Police arrested a man believed to have started another fire
close to a Repsol oil refinery in the town of Puertollano in
central Spain. That fire was under control, a government
official said.

In Zamora province, also in central Spain, a fire that had
consumed about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) was now manageable,
a government spokesman said.

In Madrid, an annual water fight which takes place as part
of a fiesta in the district of Vallecas went ahead on Sunday
but organizers said the battle would last half as long as
usual.