Latest: Residents return home as fires finally abate

AFTER a fraught few days dominated by fear, residents of Javea and Benitatxell are trying to gradually return to normality amid the ashes the once called home. 

The ferocious wildfires which caused the evacuation of thousands of people, the destruction of dozens of homes, and left hundreds of hectares of the Costa Blanca’s scenic environment reduced to scorched earth, have thankfully abated after a courageous effort by local fire-fighters, both professionals and volunteers. 

While the Red Cross and emergency services have given residents the green light to return to their homes, unfortunately not all of them found that they could, as many properties in La Granadella, Javea, Milfulles, Tosalet and Pinsol were either damaged or destroyed. 

Sobering scenes of the disasters aftermath show burnt out cars, blackened lands, and piles of rubble and ashes where family homes once stood. 

Firefighters are continuing to battle smaller blazes but the wider situation is officially under control, despite the shocking revelation that the arsonists responsible were still lighting new fires in La Granadella as late as Monday afternoon when the blazes had already captured international attention and a full scale rescue effort was underway. 

Seprona, the environmental protection unit of the Guardia Civil, is calling for citizen cooperation and witness statements as police strengthen individual their resolve to capture the arsonists, believed to be an organised gang rather than an. 

Sightings of suspicious vehicles around Benitatxell are being investigated and officials have pledged that the culprits will ‘face the full weight of the law’. 

Tuesday’s flames in Bolulla have also abated after the evacuation of hundreds of people and it is thought that an accidental barbeque rather than arson may have been responsible. 

Far away in Galicia, however, a series of huge wildfires, thought to have been started deliberately, have already destroyed thousands of hectares and seen hundreds of people evacuated. An enormous relief effort bolstered by the military emergency unit is now underway.