Area size of New York City burnt in Spain fires

Jason Webb

An area the size of New York City was destroyed in forest fires that raged across northwestern Spain this month, sparking accusations of political incompetence and organised arson, an official said on Wednesday.

“A very large area has burnt, about 70,000 hectares,” said Emilio Perez, the Galicia region’s head of government, adding that many of the hundreds of fires were started on purpose.

The area burnt became a political issue when Spain’s conservative Popular Party opposition accused the local and national governments, which are both Socialist, of incompetence and disorganisation in fighting the fires.

The Popular Party said it worked out from a NASA Internet page that 175,000 hectares had gone up in smoke.

After an army-backed emergency effort including 7,000 fire fighters and planes dousing blazes with sea water, all but one fire had been extinguished by Wednesday.

But the fires damaged Galicia’s tourist economy during the year’s busiest month, with beach goers coated in ashes and campers evacuated from tent sites or roped into fire fighting.

Police have arrested 30 people for arson and authorities spoke of conspiracies by fire fighters seeking work and villagers exacting revenge on neighbours.

One part-time fire fighter was caught in a wood carrying a can of petrol and 14 cigarette lighters. A newspaper published a photograph of tiny parachutes carrying firecrackers dropped onto trees.

As suspicions spread, the strain told on some fire fighters.

“It’s sad you put out fires and they call you a pyromaniac. It’s like blaming a doctor for murder,” said one, Nacho Penela, speaking to El Pais newspaper.

Summer fires are a recurring phenomenon in Spain, where an average 140,000 hectares burned every year from 1990 to 2004.

People start almost all of them. But ecologists say the main problem is poor forest management in a depopulating countryside.

Most Galician forests are small plots of pine and eucalyptus whose owners rarely bother to clear flammable undergrowth, said Felix Romero, of the World Wildlife Fund/Adena.

“Galicia has to restructure its forest sector. Today, Galicia has a forest crisis,” Romero said.