Valencia fire still burning, 1000 people evacuated from their homes
Baku, July 2 (AZERTAC). The number of people evacuated by the Cortes de Pallas fire in Valencia has now risen to 1,000. The smoke from the fire has closed four roads.
The town of Dos Aguas had to be evacuated on Thursday, and today other nearby municipalities have also been evacuated.
In Adilla the Mayor says they are `desperate` and that extinguishing the fire is `proving very complicated`. More than 200 local residents have had to leave their homes in the municipality.
The residents have been taken to Turis or Macastre where facilities are being prepared for them. Some residents of Cortes de Pallás are now being allowed back home.
The President of the Generalitat regional government, Alberto Fabra, flew over the affected area by helicopter and he said that the thousands of hectares affected presented a `gruesome and devastating` landscape. He described the fire as `the largest in recent years`, but declined to put a number on the hectares destroyed.
The largest front of the four which remain active was advancing towards Llombai and Catadau. Only in the mountain zone of La Concordia the flames have affected 11,000 hectares, and some estimate that 30,000 hectares have been affected in total.
The fire has now affected six municipalities.
Fire fighters are seeing the extinction of the blaze being complicated by 50km/hr northerly winds and the high temperatures. They are using 28 fire fighting planes and helicopters, 52 fire trucks and 1,000 people, including emergency military and dozens of volunteers, some of whom have travelled other districts and provinces. It is now being described as `the worst fire in Valencia for a decade`. There are fears that the fire could reach the Sierra Calderona.
Some Mayors have complained that they lack the means for fight the fire which has come on what is the hottest June in the area for 42 years.
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