Barbecue fire kills 11 firemen in forest blaze

SPANISH rescue teams yesterday recovered the bodies of 11 firefighters who died trying to douse a forest blaze in central Spain – the deadliest in five years — believed to have been sparked by a barbecue.

The firemen were caught in the middle of the fire on Sunday when a change of wind altered the direction of the flames, which started on Saturday afternoon in a nature reserve in the central province of Guadalajara, east of Madrid.

Police said a barbecue that had not been fully extinguished sparked the fire.

The fire, one of the biggest in Spain this summer and the deadliest in years, has charred an estimated 8,000 hectares (19,770 acres) of pine woodland

Police in Guadalajara interviewed a group of people believed to have been responsible for the barbecue, but had made no arrests.

The dead firefighters, aged between 24 and 52, were found at the top of a hill. Some were on the ground, others in the four vehicles that were also burned.

Miguel Tamayo, 45, a resident of nearby Riba de Saelices, drove up to the hill to see the fire damage and met the sole survivor of the group of firefighters.

“When I found the man, all his arms were burned,” said Tamayo. “I asked him were there more people and he said ‘they’re all dead’.”

Some 400 residents from four villages in the area were evacuated, although many returned to their homes on Sunday.

“We saw it coming, us older folk,” said retiree Andres Garcia Serrano of Albanque. “When there were 600 people living in the village, the pine grove was looked after, but now nobody looks after it. We haven’t seen anything like this before.”

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who visited the charred area late yesterday, was booed by around 150 angry inhabitants of the affected villages who complained about the delay and the lack of resources in battling the blaze.

In France, three volunteer firemen died yesterday while fighting a blaze that engulfed a barn. The men were killed as a 33ft wall collapsed on them outside a blazing barn in Metz-le-Comte.

The fire may have been aggravated by the recent dry spell.