Massive forest fire in Tarragona

FIREMEN in the Spanish province of Tarragona are continuing to battle a forest blaze that has so far devastated 5,000 hectares.

There are fears that rising temperatures forecast for today (June 27) could lead to the fire spreading further and affecting up to 20,000 hectares.

Imatges aèries del flanc dret de l’incendi. El video va ser fet en el darrer vol del vespre en l’helicòpter de #bomberscat. S’hi aprecien l’orografia abrupta del terreny i la dispersió de les flames, a causa del gran nombre de focus secundaris que ha fet #IFRiberadEbre pic.twitter.com/2kFpu0LHpI

— Bombers (@bomberscat) June 27, 2019

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So far it has affected the municipalities of Torre de l’Espanyol, Vinebre, La Palma d’Ebre, Flix and Maials. Authorities had hoped to have the fire under control by the early hours of this morning, but it proved an impossible task.

General director of Extinction of Fires, Manel Pardo, said it had been a “very hard” night. The fire service deployed 80 men, a command helicopter and three aircraft from 7am, with another three firefighting helicopters and three planes joining the battle later in the day.

On top of that, the Military Emergency Unit arrived to help fight the blaze, deploying 120 troops and nine vehicles from the Intervention Battalion, based in Zaragoza.