Forest fires claim Sa Coma ridge

It started on Friday with an isolated plume of smoke across the Sa Coma valley. Within 10 minutes a raging inferno was moving at a horrifying speed along the heavily wooded ridge totally out of control.

That first signs of smoke were noticed at around 12.45pm on Friday afternoon, but by 1.30pm the whole of the Sa Coma Frio valley in the hills above Andraitx town, in Mallorca, seemed to be on fire.

Fire fighters rushed to the scene as the blaze covered over 2km. Water planes with heavily laden water buckets and red coloured fire-retardant bon=mbarded the flames from above. However the elements played against the fire fighters as the wind changed direction and re ignited the trees. Reports claimed the fire could be seen from the village of S' Arraco just a few kilometres from Andraitx.

The road in and out of Sa Coma was closed down and fire-fighters erected a small base on the scene from were they coordinated their operations. 86 fire fighters from all over Mallorca were scrambled to Sa Coma, and additional military help flew in on Saturday afternoon from Valencia. Seven fire fighting aircraft, including a giant Canadair from Zaragoza, battled the flames with tons of water.

Meanwhile in the capital Palma, the Civil Protection placed the region on a level two, orange alert for extreme temperatures over the next few days as temperatures breached 40ºC.

The general public was advised to stay away from forests and mountains until the alert is lifted. People were advised not to leave empty bottles lying around, not to start BBQs or fires, refrain from throwing cigarette stubs out of car windows and not to leave rubbish lying around because they could all start a fire.

Emergency service asked the help of the public and requested that anything suspicious should be reported. Prevention is the key to this year's forest fire campaign on the Iberian island.