TERRORISTS!

100 Blazes Set Deliberately

SPECIALIST fire units are counting the cost of one the biggest wildfires in Spain for a decade.

The Castellon fire is finally under control after raging for nine days, destroying

4,700 hectares of mountain woodland.

Some 1,700 residents were evacuated after the blaze started in the Alto Mijares region on March 23.

Strong gusts of wind caused a few embers to relight over the weekend but reappearing flames were quickly extinguished.

Most residents have finally been able to return to their homes, after being forced to stay at special emergency centres. While no properties were destroyed, a number of the 500 firefighters suffered from smoke inhalation.

The fire was described by Valencian president Ximo Puig as being more of a summer fire fanned by 'voracious' summer-like temperatures.

Spark

Hard-working fire crews were able to prevent it from entering the valuable Sierra de Espadan natural park.

The fire is believed to have started from a spark of a machine ‘used to collect brushwood'.

“Everything points to the fire starting due to agricultural malpractice,” claimed regional fire chief Jose Maria Angel. So serious was the blaze that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez insisted the intensity was down to the alarming drought conditions currently threatening Spain.

"There is no room for denial because the climate emergency causes dramas like the one we are experiencing," he said on a visit to the area.

A further 600 firefighters were drafted in to battle an alarming 91 blazes in the north of Spain last week.

Nearly 400 people were evacuated from a number of key inland areas of Asturias, as a shocking 135 fires were started around the Valdes, Villayon and Tineo areas.

“The fires were set by terrorists,” President of Asturias Adrian Barbon insisted.

“They are real organised criminals.”

Meanwhile, in Cantabria firefighters were dealing with 28 fires at the