Forest fires in Spain force more than 900 to flee and a firefighter dies

ESTEPONA, Spain, September 9 (Reuters) – A fire has forced the evacuation of more than 900 people from Estepona station in southern Spain, local authorities said on Thursday.

A 44-year-old firefighter died while working in gunpowder, regional head of the environment Carmen Crespo told reporters.

The fires started around 9.30pm on Wednesday and have since burned about 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of the densely wooded area known as the Sierra Bermeja, according to emergency services.

A total of 939 people have been evacuated from four communities in Estepona, which is popular with retirees and British tourists, and one in neighboring Benahavis, authorities said.

Neighbor Cristina Zamora, 38, hurried through the streets with a large gray cat traced on her arm while a photographer helped her with another cat in a box.

“I was at work, so I ran back to the animals … I had to leave the parakeets,” he said.

An elderly British resident who gave his name while Arthur was running through the village escorted by police before throwing himself into the car with his wife and dog.

“It’s just one of those things … these things happen,” he said when asked if he was afraid of fire.

A Reuters witness saw huge clouds of smoke gush from the forest and blow towards the village of Las Abejeras in Estepona, which was evacuated Wednesday night.

More than 300 firefighters are working to extinguish the fire, which has not yet been brought under control, Andalusian emergency services have posted on Twitter.

Several roads, including a section of the AP-7 motorway, which runs alongside the Mediterranean, were closed due to the blaze.

By the end of August, forest fires had ravaged 74,260 hectares (183,500 acres) in Spain, above the average of the last ten years, but were still far from the 190,000 hectares (469,500 acres) destroyed in 2012, the worst year of the last decade.

Data from the Ministry of the Environment show seven of the ten hottest years recorded in Spain in the last decade.

This year there have been unusually large forest fires in various parts of the world, fueled by extremely hot and dry conditions that experts say are symptomatic of climate change.

Report by Jon Nazca; Additional reports and writing by Inti Landauro, Emma Pinedo, Nathan Allen and Jesús Aguado; edition by Andrei Khalip, Alistair Bell and Jonathan Oatis

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