Forest fire kills 11 Spanish firefighters

GUADALAJARA – Eleven volunteer firefighters died fighting a forest fire in Spain’s central Guadalajara region, the deadliest blaze in the country in 15 years, officials said yesterday.

A local government spokesman on Sunday had put the toll in the blaze, which was apparently started by a barbecue, at 14. The regional authorities and Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who visited the scene, released the official death toll Monday as 11.One fireman was injured and none were listed as missing.Their bodies were found during the night by emergency services.The victims all belonged to the same group of reserve firefighters and were made up of forest workers.An AFP photographer at the scene of the blaze saw an all-terrain vehicle which had crashed into a low wall, and two charred bodies lying next to it.A fire truck and two other all-terrain vehicles, all three of them completely burned out, were located some 200 meters further up the path.The blaze, fuelled by high winds, destroyed 8 000 hectares of pine forest, Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said.Yesterday, firefighters, aided by water-bombing planes, were continuing to battle the blaze.Around 700 residents from four towns and a holiday resort were evacuated from the area as a precautionary measure.- Nampa-AFPThe regional authorities and Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who visited the scene, released the official death toll Monday as 11.One fireman was injured and none were listed as missing.Their bodies were found during the night by emergency services.The victims all belonged to the same group of reserve firefighters and were made up of forest workers.An AFP photographer at the scene of the blaze saw an all-terrain vehicle which had crashed into a low wall, and two charred bodies lying next to it.A fire truck and two other all-terrain vehicles, all three of them completely burned out, were located some 200 meters further up the path.The blaze, fuelled by high winds, destroyed 8 000 hectares of pine forest, Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said.Yesterday, firefighters, aided by water-bombing planes, were continuing to battle the blaze.Around 700 residents from four towns and a holiday resort were evacuated from the area as a precautionary measure.- Nampa-AFP