Nerja’s Environment Councillor, Nieves Atencia has called for the regional government of Andalucia to take action to reduce the risks of forest fires next summer, by putting in place a programme to clear up the Sierra Tejeda, Almijara & Alhama Natural Park . The councillor has pointed out that previously there would have been people working in the park who would have kept it free of debris such as fallen tree branches. She went on to say that “now, however, there is practically no human activity of this type in the park and in the last few years this has converted the park into a place at extreme risk of fire.”

In the summer a huge forest fire raged in the region of Marbella (video above) and, according to the councillor, “this was been a warning of the precarious state of the park and the lack of investment in fire prevention by the Environment Department.” adding that fire prevention is cheaper than fire fighting.

The forest fire caused thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes and hotels and burnt around 1,000 hectares of land in the area between Coin and Marbella. Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the area, including 30 firefighting aircraft. The video above shows the scale of the fires along with images of the firefighters trying to put out the flames and some of the aircraft in action, including the Canadian built CL-215 Scooper fire fighting plane and the Russian Kamov Ka-32 helicopter.

The yellow Canadair Scooper can often be seen swooping low over the sea, scooping up water in front of Burriana and the Maro-Cerro Gordo natural park.

Image courtesy of SH Solutions 2012.

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