Helicopter helps fight Playa Flamenca blaze

Firefighters in Orihuela Costa had to call in a helicopter to a tackle a scrub blaze as it approached perilously close to apartments.

As locals nervously watched, the firefighters fought the burning scrubfire that sent plumes of smoke into the air and left a thin layer of ash settling in the surrounding areas 

The fire, which started aroud 3pm today in Calle Niagara near the Flamenca Beach commercial centre, Playa Flamenca, was finally put out around two hours later. Local police said the reasons for the fire, which burned 6,084 square metres of land, were still unknown.

The Euro Weekly New’s Chantel Sewell took this picture of the helicopter in action. She said: “There were lots of people watching from a distance as the police had closed the road off. The fire was getting close to the apartments – it looked to be right next to them.”

The whole of Alicante province is on a severe fire alert after an unusually dry winter.