Forest Fire Under Control

Forest Fire Under Control. Fire fighters have managed to bring the blaze in the Sierra Bermeja area “under control”.

The devastating forest fire which has been burning for more than a week in the Sierra Bermeja area has been declared “under control”. Fire fighters are now concentrating on damping down the remaining flames and preventing new pockets of fire from forming.

The blaze has decimated 4866 hectares of land (almost 49 square kilometres) in the Pujerra and Benahavis areas. Guardia Civil have arrrested four people over the fire which experts believe was started accidentally. The four men are thought to have been working in the grounds of La Resinera without the neccessary paperwork, using heavy machinery which may have sparked the blaze. The fire spread quickly because of high temperatures, low humidity, and 40 km/h winds. The 6500 hectare La Resinera estate is owned by the Libyan Foreign Bank.

Emergency crews are now damping down the area.

Injured Fire Fighters Recovering

Three fire fighters were seriously injured whist tackling the blaze, but they have all now been released from hospital and are recoving at home. There are still 62 specialist fire fighters working on the ground along with air support damping down the area.

At it’s most severe point on Thursday afternoon last week the fire was advancing at a rate of 30 metres per minute and almost 1000 people were involved in the fight to stabilise the blaze. Spokeperson Carmen Crespo says that “there is still work to be done to control and extinguish this fire”. ç

The fire has destroyed almost 5000 hectares of land.

Residents Return To Their Homes

Many of those who were forced to leave their homes on Thursday were allowed to return on Friday afternoon. Director Juan Sanchez explained “We are going to continue working on a perimeter that in principle is no longer advancing and that does not pose a danger to the population , therefore we are taking a weight off our shoulders and also freeing up troops for the surgical work that we have to do in the mountains.”

The fire broke out at 5.30pm on Wednesday 8th June and spread rapidly. Almost 5000 hectares of land have been consumed by the fire. The fire was burning in the Pujerra area to the south of Ronda and the Benahavis area to the north of Puerto Banus.