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FIRE

800 people evacuated as wildfire rips through Spain’s Malaga province

Firefighters hampered by strong winds were battling to contain a wildfire in Spain's Costa del Sol on Thursday September 9th which forced the evacuation of 800 people, officials said.

800 people evacuated as wildfire rips through Spain's Malaga province
People in Benahavis look at smoke columns rising from a wildfire in Sierra Bermeja mountain range in Malaga province, on September 9, 2021. - Almost a thousand people had to be evacuated preventively from their homes due to a forest fire in southern Spain, which firefighters continue to fight today, authorities reported. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

About 250 firefighters backed by 26 water-dropping aircraft were battling the blaze which broke out late on Wednesday in the Sierra Bermeja mountains in the southern province of Malaga, the regional government of Andalusia said in a statement.

Emergency services said some 800 people were evacuated from their homes as a precaution, mainly from the municipality of Estepona, an area popular with British retirees and holidaymakers.

A helicopter is pictured from Benahavis as it overflies a wildfire in Sierra Bermeja mountain range in Malaga province.

Several told Spanish public television TVE they were given only minutes to leave by police.

Firefighters said strong winds, with gusts of up to 60kmh, dry conditions and the steep mountain slopes were making it difficult to put out the flames.

Smoke columns seen from Benahavis as they rise from a wildfire in Sierra Bermeja mountain range.

“Winds are getting stronger but luckily even though they are getting stronger, which will complicate the fire, they are coming from the west which moves the fire away from built-up areas,” the head of the Malaga firefighter division, Mr Manuel Marmolejo, told reporters.

Local officials suspect the blaze may have been deliberately started, as it broke out in several places at around the same time.

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FIRE

Barcelona fire kills four, including two children

A fire ripped through an abandoned bank occupied by squatters in central Barcelona on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby and a three year-old boy, Spanish firefighters said.

Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people.
Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people. (Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP)

“While we were battling the fire, we found four people. Emergency services tried to revive them but unfortunately they failed, they could not do anything to save them,” the head of the firefighting operation, Ángel López, told reporters.

Firefighters rescued four other people who were inside the building while putting out the blaze, he added.

Those four were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters rushed to the scene at around 6 am after being warned that a blaze had broken out in the building, Mr Lopez said.

While Mr López said it was not clear how the four dead people were related, Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia said they were all members of a Romanian family.

A spokesman for Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, said an investigation had been opened into the causes of the fire.

In December 2020, four people were killed after a blaze ripped through an industrial complex occupied by squatters, many of them African migrants, near Barcelona.

Over 100 squatters were believed to be living in precarious conditions at the abandoned complex in Badalona, a suburban town north of the city.

In addition to the four deaths, more than 20 people were injured in the blaze.

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