Marbella wildfires under control but new front opens
Marbella’s wildfires are under control, but a new front opens up in southern Spain’s Juanar area, as reports about a possible British casualty are conflicted.
The flames reached the area of Juanar with “great virulence,” Spanish newspaper El Pais reported citing Manuel Marmolejo, chief of the Málaga firefighting department. Two hotels were evacuated as a result.
While fires were still burning in the forests in the Malaga area, firefighters said they were in control of a wildfire threatening villages outside of the beach resort of Marbella on Saturday. About 4,000 evacuees from southern Spain’s Costa del Sol area started returning to their homes and hotels in the main residential areas today.
An estimated 300 British ex-patriots were among the evacuees.
Charred body found
One Marbella couple in their late fifties was reportedly hospitalised with burns to 60 per cent of their bodies and, in another incident, a mother and her two children were reported to have been found hiding inside a cave in Ojén and treated for smoke inhalation.
El Pais reported that the charred body of a 78-year-old British man was found in the area of Las Blanquillas, inside Ojén, and that his wife was still missing on Saturday. A spokesman for the Andalucia regional government said the body of the British man was found in a tool shed.
Despite the reports, Britain’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office told Channel 4 News on Saturday that they had no official confirmation that a 78-year-old man or that any other British nationals died as a result of the wildfires.
Marbella blaze
The blaze began on Thursday and an estimated 1,000 hectares had been affected by Saturday. Hundreds of firefighters and members of the military fought the blaze overnight with helicopters and planes drenching the wildfires.
The blaze started in the hills above Marbella and was fanned by strong winds, unusually high temperatures and dry weather. Thousands were evacuated in the Canary Islands earlier in the summer and four died in fires in July in north-east Spain.
Britain’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office deployed consular staff to the evacuation centres to assist British holidaymakers.