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Hopes Rain Would End Week-Long Battle with Unseasonable Wildfires in Northern Spain

Hopes Rain Would End Week-Long Battle with Unseasonable Wildfires in Northern Spain
folder_openAsia-Pacific... access_time5 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

Spain continued to battle unseasonal wildfires in its northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria on Wednesday although authorities hoped forecasts of easing winds and the coming of rain will help put an end to days-long battle to rein in a spate of blazes that investigators believed many might have been ignited deliberately.

A string of wildfires have struck the two mountainous and verdant zones since the end of last week – at least 350 outbreaks have been recorded in Asturias alone but emergency services said that by Wednesday a total of 10 blazes, split evenly between the regions, remained active.

Cantabrian emergency services were closely monitoring two fires near the towns of Vargas and Penagos, just south of the regional capital Santander, but said that the other three wildfires presented no risk to the local population.

Aerial support from water-dropping helicopters, including one from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food deployed to the area, continued in operation.

Spain's state meteorological agency Aemet said that winds of up to 100 kph that have been battering some areas of Cantabria were due to subside, adding that rain was also forecast to come in the afternoon.

Guillermo Martínez, spokesman for the local government of Asturias on Wednesday said he had downgraded the risk of forest fires, which earlier in the week was set at "very high," meaning units from Spain's militarized emergency services [UME] would be recalled from the operation.

Martínez called on the local population to report any suspicious activity and to identify the culprits involved in setting fires.

Asturias' wildfire investigation department [Bripas] said roughly 82 percent of wildfires were deliberately set, 70 percent of which were farmers burning grass in a bid to regenerate the land.

Police on Tuesday launched a search for a suspect seen from a helicopter trying to start a fire in la Bobia, a rural area of Asturias.

Fires that have been deliberately lit usually provide several clues, especially when several strong outbreaks have been found in a relatively small area or when evidence of fire-lighting substances have been found.

The Iberian Peninsula has in recent years been increasingly at risk of wildfires during the long, dry summer season, but it is unusual for such fierce outbreaks to emerge so early in the year.

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