Spain battles deadly forest fire, 11 dead

Forensic teams started identifying on Monday the blackened corpses of 11 fire-fighters who died in a forest fire in Spain while police interviewed a group who admitted to starting the giant blaze.
The bodies of the young men and women were found on the stripped, ash-covered terrain beside the charred chassis of their four-by-four vehicles. A sudden change in the wind direction on Sunday had encircled their vehicles with flames. But firefighters, working by air and land, had extinguished much of the fire by Monday, leaving just one front blazing. The direction of the wind made officials optimistic about bringing the blaze under control, a spokeswoman for the regional environment department said.
More than 250 people battled the blaze which officials said was sparked by an illegal barbecue in a nature reserve full of pine trees and brush in the Guadalajara area east of Madrid.