Madrid [Spain], August 22: Cooler and damper weather is boosting firefighting efforts in Spain, as the country continues to grapple with its worst forest and bush fires in decades.
"The situation is now more favourable," Virginia Barcones, the director general of Spain's civil protection agency, told state broadcaster RTVE on Thursday.
After a positive night, 21 major fires were still active in the north-west and west of the country, but most had been prevented from spreading, Barcones said.
One of the largest fires continues to rage in Jarilla in the western region of Extremadura, where at least 16,000 hectares have been destroyed.
Since Tuesday, local emergency forces have been assisted by firefighters from other European Union countries including Germany.
The autonomous communities of Castile and Leon and Galicia in the north-west, Asturias in the north and Extremadura in the west have been particularly hard hit by the series of mega-fires that broke out around two weeks ago in mostly sparsely populated areas.
According to the latest estimates by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), more than 4,000 square kilometres of nature have been destroyed in Spain since the beginning of the year.
Source: Qatar Tribune
