Towering flames raced through mountain forests by the glitzy Spanish resort of Marbella on Friday, killing at least one person, injuring five and sending thousands fleeing. Hundreds of fire-fighters, reinforced by emergency military personnel and backed by 31 planes and helicopters, battled the blaze that was fanned by hot, dry winds in southern Spain, officials said.
Flames danced high above the tree tops, lighting up the sky in the early hours as a 12-kilometre (seven-mile) line of fire glowed across the Sierra Negra mountains by the Costa del Sol resort. The inferno, which forced up to 5,000 people from their homes, according to media, killed one man, left a couple with major burns, and sent a mother and her two children scurrying into a cave to escape the danger.
One elderly man apparently made a fatal error of returning to his home near Marbella after he and his wife were evacuated the previous night, a spokesman for the Andalusia regional government told AFP. His burnt corpse was found near the charred remains of the house, and fire-fighters were searching the rubble in case his wife had also perished, the spokesman said. "It seems that they went back at their own risk," he said. "The house is charred and collapsed, so the fire-fighters are going through the rubble because there is a possibility that the woman could have died, but that is not confirmed."
The couple were not identified. Another five people were taken to hospital, among them a Spanish couple being treated in Marbella for major second- and third-degree burns over about two-thirds of their bodies, the spokesman said. A 40-year-old mother and her two children, one aged three and the other 11, took refuge from the inferno in a cave, and were now recovering in hospital, where they were given oxygen and treated for bruises.
Their injuries were not considered serious, officials said. The inferno broke out Thursday afternoon and rapidly gained strength into the night. In the early hours of the morning, the wind died down and a brief sprinkling of rain fed hopes for relief. But an AFP photographer said the wind blew hard again later in the day as temperatures rose. Thick smoke hung over town of Ojen in the same region, and swirled around small white villages nestled in the mountains. Cinders floated in the air. "Around Ojen it is all completely charred," the photographer said.
The resort's sandy beaches and vibrant night life attract about 1.5 million foreign tourists a year, mostly Britons but also Nordic visitors and Germans, French, Italians, Dutch and Belgians. More than 800 people were now engaged in the struggle against the fire, said the head of the Andalusia regional government, Jose Antonio Grinan, expressing hope the situation would improve during the day. Spain is at particularly high risk of fires this summer after suffering its driest winter in 70 years, and blazes have broken out in various parts of the country in recent days. Flames destroyed more than 153,000 hectares (378,000 acres) of land between January 1 and August 26, three times the amount during the same time last year and the highest amount in a decade, according to agriculture ministry figures.
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