Province mourns firefighter

CARLOS MARTINEZ, the forest fireman who died fighting the catastrophic Sierra Bermeja (Malaga) blaze, was originally from Las Tres Villas.

Mayor Virtudes Perez, mayor of the small village (population 565), ordered three days of mourning and flags flown at half-mast for the 44-year-old firefighter, who was married and the father of two daughters aged nine and six.

“In villages, people not related on one side of the family have relatives on the other,” Perez said.

The dead firefighter’s family was very well-known, the mayor added: “They are really great people.”

Roquetas de Mar where Martinez lived, held a minute’s silence in his memory, as did Alhama de Almeria, which is the base for the Junta’s INFOCA forest-firefighting unit located in Dalias and attached to the Cedefo forest defence centre.