Madrid: More than 2,500 people were said to have been evacuated from La Palma in the Canary Islands, where a fire has destroyed 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of land, according to Spanish officials on Saturday.
With the assistance of firefighting aircraft, about 300 firefighters are working on the ground to put out the blaze, they added. According to Fernando Clavijo, head of the regional government for the Canary Islands, "the fire advanced very quickly."
He cited "the wind, the climate conditions, as well as the heatwave that we are living through" as the causes of the fire's rapid spread.
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Hector Gomez, the minister of tourism, told reporters, "It's a fire that has gathered strength in very little time." The La Palma Council's Sergio Rodriguez, the top official on the island, urged citizens to heed the evacuation order so that the emergency services could operate more efficiently.
According to a statement from local authorities, the fire started in the Puntagorda district in the morning before quickly spreading. According to Marcos Lorenzo, the mayor of Tijarafe, not all of the town had been evacuated.
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The worst number in Europe, more than 300,000 hectares of land were destroyed by more than 500 wildfires in Spain in 2022, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
According to the most recent EFFIS data, it has already lost another 66,000 hectares to fire this year.
In a nation that has been severely impacted by climate change, with numerous brutal heatwaves and decreasing rainfall, the situation is even more concerning.
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The national meteorological service noted record highs during the unusually hot weather on the Spanish mainland. The Canary Islands of Spain are located off the coast of northwest Africa.