A HUGE inferno that has forced firefighters to evacuate 17 hamlets, a holiday park and a Boy Scouts' camp when it broke out on Thursday is still raging out of control on day five.
Rising temperatures, low humidity and high winds mean the blaze sweeping through the countryside near the town of Yeste (Albacete province) is spreading fast, having wiped out over 2,000 hectares (just under 5,000 acres), nearly a third of which was in the last 24 hours.
On day one, emergency services evacuated 10 of Yeste's tied hamlets and a caravan park, and the following day, 54 Boy Scouts and 14 Scout leaders had to flee their camp site.
Last night (Sunday), the rural residential clusters of Morepeche, Los Ignacios and Tejeruela were evacuated and their residents taken to Yeste town where they were given emergency accommodation, whilst those of Cañada-Morote, Casas de Francisco, Casas del Collado and El Pardal were put up for the night in the nearby town of Molinicos.
Thursday's and Friday's evacuated residents and visitors were split between Molinicos, Yeste and the town of Elche de la Sierra.
The affected hamlets are small and sparsely inhabited, meaning the total number of evacuees, including the Scout camp and holiday park, is around 300 – far less than it would have been in a more built-up area.
But around 150 have since been allowed to go back to their homes.
Residents in Yeste and Molinicos have been warned to stay indoors and keep their doors and windows shut due to the extreme risk of smoke inhalation, which can be very quickly fatal.
At least 23 hydroplanes and helicopters are working constantly on the blaze, although they are only able to do so in daylight.
Fire brigades, the Armed Forces, Civil Protection and Red Cross volunteers, and paramedics have been brought in from elsewhere in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, as well as the regions of Andalucía, to the south and Murcia, to the east.
Yeste town hall warned last night on its Facebook site that the inferno was moving in an easterly and north-easterly direction, towards Murcia and Alicante respectively, and that the greatest danger zones were the tied hamlets of Los Collados and Peñas Coloradas.
It also put out an appeal for residents in Yeste with spare rooms to offer accommodation to those forced to flee their homes in the line of the fire.
As yet, the cause is not know, but the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha says it will bring a private prosecution if it turns out to be arson and the culprit is found.
The blaze is so dramatic that it has even made international TV news programmes, along with a massive wildfire in the far western province of Zamora, in Castilla y León, which has wiped out 2,500 hectares (6,152 acres) and forced authorities to shut the road from Spain to Portugal.
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