Disastrous year for wildfires in Spain

IT has been a disastrous year for wildfires in Spain with more than 57,000 hectares burned so far, more than triple the amount of the same period in 2018.

Fire has destroyed a total of 57,697 hectares up until August 11, making 2019 the fifth worst year of the decade in terms of forest fires with four months of the year still to go.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food show that in just one week from August 4 to 11, 254 fires destroyed 1,198 hectares. Since then a major fire has been raging in Gran Canaria and another on the Costa del Sol.

So far this year 43.70 per cent of the fires occurred in the northwest, 39.28 per cent in the interior communities, 16.53 per cent on the Mediterranean coasts and 0.49 per cent in the Canary Islands.