Thousands flee as deadly fire rages near Marbella, Spain

Thousands flee as deadly fire rages near Marbella, Spain

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 firefighters, 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.

Source

Yet more fires spreading, Started Yesterday and is spreading. Already fatalities when an old chap decided to return to his home. His remains were found near his destroyed home.

More land destroyed lately in fires than I have seen before.

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.

Now idea how it started but it's still going. They are blaming the driest winter in 70 years!.

reply to post by StarTraveller


There are fires just about everywhere it seems, bad one! We have smoke here even at the coast from fires in the mountains, all caused by lightning. We have had none at all of the usual summer rain. This is the first summer that no camp fires could be lite anywhere, and we just got a paper in the mail from CA state saying each household in certain areas are going to be charged 150$ for fire maintenance. On top of what we all pay already!!

As if Spain did not have enough trouble. I am sorry to hear this, hopefully they will get these fires under control before any more damage is done and more lives are lost. Stay safe everyone, prayers are with you.

reply to post by StarTraveller

i am living in estepona and today everything as been covered in ash from the fires .
estepona is about 15 k away from marbella.

Thanks for stopping by and hope all is well in your area. Please keep us updated and Also Stay Safe!

FLEEE! FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!

Sorry, I know this is not a laughing matter at all, but I just instantly thought of when the guy in the 3rd Lord of the Rings movie said that after I read the title.

Does anyone know if fires are common there? They did say this fire was worse because of how dry it's been, but is it a pretty common thing to have wildfires?

reply to post by James1982


Most fires on Iberia are of human origin and a large percentage is intentionally set. Idle hands and all that... with the situation as it is economically this stuff will just get worst.

There is also a large problem of eucalyptus planting for paper production this tree is extremely damaging as it takes in larges amount of water and is highly inflammable (the eucalyptus is originally from Australia I think).

Originally posted by Panic2k11
reply to post by James1982

 

Most fires on Iberia are of human origin and a large percentage is intentionally set. Idle hands and all that... with the situation as it is economically this stuff will just get worst.

There is also a large problem of eucalyptus planting for paper production this tree is extremely damaging as it takes in larges amount of water and is highly inflammable (the eucalyptus is originally from Australia I think).

That's unfortunate. They need smokey the bear over there maybe.

I've heard Eucalyptus can be almost explosive in the right conditions, and with the monoculture tree farms out there I could definitely see that as a dangerous situation.