Spanish wildfires: thousands flee as blazes threaten national parks
Source: The Guardian
Wildfires have forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and on Sunday were threatening some of Spain's most precious natural parks, including a Unesco world heritage site.
The evacuation of more than 4,000 residents on La Gomera and Tenerife in the Canary Islands began late on Saturday and many roads were closed as a precaution, the regional government said. On Sunday residents were not being allowed to return to eight towns and villages on the tourist island of Tenerife and 10 on La Gomera, the government said.
A statement said firefighters were finding it difficult to limit the spread of fire. "We are living through hell, we have asked the central government for more resources with which to fight the fire," said Casimimo Curbelo, the local government leader of La Gomera.
At the heart of his island lies Garajonay national park, which experts say contains woodlands that have survived for 11 million years. Water-carrying aircraft that doused flames when fire broke out there a week ago were sent elsewhere after officials decided the outbreak had been brought under control, only to find it was rekindled by winds and high temperatures, said regional official Nancy Melo.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/12/spanish-wildfires-thousands-flee-blazes
= new reply since forum marked as read
United States, Russia and now Spain experiencing massive wildfires. Is this normal?
so I'd say no. A once in 12M year fire seems pretty rare to me. 