Fires clock up hectares of destruction on Balearics

THE area devastated by fire in the first eight months of this year in the Balearic Islands is already double the surface affected last year.

There have been 66 forest fires which have burned 108.48 hectares of land according to the Balearic Nature Institute (Ibanat).

Up to August 28 last year, there had been 74 fires, but only 52.7 hectares were affected, 32.4 of them in Mallorca.

Throughout the whole of 2014, there were 101 forest fires in the Balearic Islands which destroyed 64.4 hectares, the second lowest figures in a decade. There were 71 in Mallorca, where 44.1 hectares were destroyed.

Fifty-nine per cent of the fires were caused by negligence and accidents, 27 per cent were intentional, 10 per cent were due to natural causes and in four per cent of cases the cause is unknown. Seven of the fires were classified as serious forest fires due to the large area affected, while the rest were considered to be only small fires.

The worst year in the decade was 2013, when 2,845.5 hectares were destroyed in the Balearic Islands, mainly due to the huge fire in the Tramuntana Mountains, which accounted for 2,335 hectares.