Wildfire triggers mass evacuation in Spain

Some 300 firefighters were combating the flames on Friday, with the fire fanned by strong winds and aided by scorching temperatures.

The blaze has burned 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of land since it broke out on Thursday, government of Extremadura region said in a statement.

Residents of Acebo and Perales del Puerto, as well as holidaymakers from the mountain campsites, were evacuated, the government added.

"Houses have been burned, I don't know how many, two, three. Sheep have been burned. It's a tragedy for the village," Acebo's deputy mayor, Jose Javier Gonzalez Iglesia, told Spanish public television.

The Spanish Agricultural ministry said it has sent four water-carrying planes and a helicopter to help in the battle against the blaze.

There were no reports of injuries.

Record-breaking heat

Although the cause of the fire was still undetermined, indications are that arson was to blame, according to head of the regional government Guillermo Fernandez Vara.

"When a fire is concentrated in a very specific area it is because the hand of man must have played some kind of a role, because it is not hotter and drier in the Sierra de Gata than in the rest of Extremadura," he told reporters.

Vara also said that this was the fifth fire in the area in recent months.

Wildfires have destroyed over 54,000 hectares of agricultural and forest land this year, more than in the previous two years combined, officials say.

Last month was the hottest on record in Spain, with the temperature in July averaging 26.5 degrees Celsius (79.7 Fahrenheit) according to national weather agency AEMET.

dj/bw (AFP, AP)