Spanish PM to visit forest firefighters
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will visit emergency service crews fighting 110 forest fires in north-west Spain today, officials said.
Zapatero, who has been on holiday in the Canary Islands, was due to fly to the Galicia region and spend tonight in areas affected by wildfires, a government spokesman said.
Five people have been arrested on suspicion of starting fires, regional prosecutor Alvaro Garcia Ortiz said. One of the five was ordered to be held in custody on provisional charges pending trial.
Another has been released on bail, a police spokesman said.
The fires, which have charred around 10,000 hectares of forest and scrubland, have occurred mainly between the port city of Vigo and tourist centre Santiago de Compostela, an area known for its fjord-like sea inlets.
Firefighters had managed to bring 49 fires under control, but high winds and very dry conditions were fanning another 62 blazes, said spokeswoman Iria Mendez.
The European Commission said Spain had asked member states to send three firefighting Canadair aircraft, five helicopters and 20 fire trucks. France was due to send two firefighting planes, an environment ministry official said.
Italy’s civil protection service said it would dispatch two Canadair planes and a team of technicians to help fight the forest fires.
The CL415 planes, capable of drenching a blaze with more than 6,000 litres of water or flame-retardant liquid, would leave for Spain this morning from Rome’s Ciampino Airport, the civil protection service said in a statement.
The planes were made available following a request by Spain’s civil protection department and as part of Europe-wide agreements for mutual assistance, the statement said.
Two wildfires were burning in Girona, on the other side of Spain in the north-east region of Catalonia, where firefighters had deployed eight vehicles.
Neighbouring Portugal, which had originally offered help to Spain, had to redeploy its firefighting forces to outbreaks within its own borders, regional authorities in Galicia said.
Forest fires in Spain and other Mediterranean countries char hundreds of thousands of acres of land every year. Spain’s national and regional governments agreed to step up vigilance after 17 people died in fires last summer.
The number of highly destructive fires, ones that have burned more than 2.5 acres, has dropped from more than 6,200 in 2005 to fewer than 3,000 in 2006 for the January-to-July period, according to environment ministry figures.
Fires charred 88,635 acres, down from 233,370 acres in 2005, the ministry added.
Authorities credit preventive measures for the drop, including bans on barbecues in the countryside in dry regions and more effective campaigns to clear roadside rubbish and fallen leaves and branches in forests.
