Spanish forest blaze kills at least 12 firefighters

SANTA MARIA DEL ESPINO, Spain - At least a dozen firefighters were killed when they were trapped by a forest fire raging along a 17km front in central Spain, an official said.

A local government source said the death toll from one of the country's worst fire-fighting disasters could be as high as 14.

The fire broke out on Saturday in a nature reserve in the Guadalajara area east of Madrid after visitors failed to put out a barbecue properly, officials said.

By Sunday night local time (Monday morning NZT) it was spreading out of control after scorching thousands of hectares of pine trees and brush.

Parched by a heatwave and the worst drought since the 1940s, much of Spain is like a tinder box and fierce fires are burning in several regions.

Jose Luis Samper, mayor of the town of Riba de Saelices, near where the deadly fire began, said a fire patrol that had come from nearby Soria province to help was surprised by the flames and trapped in a remote spot.

"After they had been missing for more than two hours, some people from this village ventured out ... and finally found them. There was only one survivor. We don't know exactly how many bodies, but they found at least 12 bodies, absolutely burned," he told Spanish state radio.

He said the victims were men and women in their 20s.

Media reports said the patrol, which had two trucks and three four-wheel-drive vehicles, was caught by a sudden change in the wind.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who rushed to the scene to get first-hand information, was booed on arrival by local people demanding more resources to fight the fire, news reports said.

About 500 people have been evacuated from four villages due to the blaze.

Strong winds drove the blaze quickly through resinous pines and flames leaped up to 40 metres high, according to witnesses.

About 150 firefighters tackled the blaze on Sunday on the ground and from the air. As night fell, they were cutting fire breaks to try to halt the advance of the blaze.

Police arrested a man believed to have started another fire close to a Repsol oil refinery in the town of Puertollano in central Spain. That fire was under control, a government official said.

In Zamora province, also in central Spain, a fire that had consumed about 1200 hectares was now manageable, a government spokesman said.

In Madrid, an annual water fight which takes place as part of a fiesta in the district of Vallecas went ahead on Sunday but organisers said the battle would last half as long as usual.

- REUTERS