Forest fire forces 6,000 from homes in Spain

A fierce forest fire has forced around 6,000 people from their homes in the east of Spain, officials said yesterday.

The fire has claimed 700 hectares of the Sierra de Calderona national park in the Valencia region since it started on Thursday evening.

Residents of nearby towns were evacuated in case the flames spread and the electricity supply to the area has been cut.

The blaze appeared to have been started intentionally, regional security chief Luis Ibanez said.

Environmental group Greenpeace says only 10 per cent of forest fires in Spain have natural causes. People start around half accidentally while the remaining 40 per cent are sparked by arsonists.

Some 41,000 hectares had been destroyed by fire by mid-July, according to the Environment Ministry. That was 10,000 hectares more than last year, when the peninsula was hit by a heatwave, but below the 76,000 hectare average for the past decade.

The ministry attributes the increase to a rise in the number of small fires affecting less than one hectare, and to a particularly dry winter in the northeast of the country.