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Forest Fire in Alcudia at the Weekend

Fire in Puig the Son Sant Martí takes 30 people to control

featured in News & reviews Author Trine Bregstein, Mallorca Reporter Updated

This weekend in the very early hours of Saturday, the police received calls around 1am alerting them to a fire that had broken out in a very inaccessible region of the Puig the Son Sant Martí to the South of Alcúdia.

The fire was tackled by 30 members from emergency teams such as the IBANAT, the Balearic Institute of Nature, with a variety of methods and was finally extinguished by 8pm Saturday evening. The investigations carried out so far lead the police to conclude that the fire, which ravaged 19 hectares, was started intentionally as the fire originated in an area with no access from paths and there wasn't anything like litter or debris that could have started it.

Last summer there were two terrible fires on the island; one was the worst the island has seen. In the western Serra de Tramuntana, declared a UNESCO world heritage site, a fire consumed 2335 hectares, burned for four days and forced the evacuation of 700 residents from one village. The second fire burned in the South East coastal region and consumed 480 hectares. The damage from the fire in the Tramuntana will take 80 years to rectify and was the result of careless barbecuing, where embers were left burning instead of being extinguished properly.

This most recent fire on the Puig the Son Sant Martí, which is a protected natural area composed mainly of scrubland with Mauritania grass and pine trees and is the home of two protected rare bat species, was intentionally set and the police will carry out further investigations. It serves as a reminder to all of how quickly forest fires can decimate an area of natural beauty.

Please take care if you are visiting the island this summer, observe the rules and regulations for barbecuing outside, know for certain that you have extinguished all embers and please make sure that you do not leave any litter as glass can magnify the sun’s rays and a fire can spark. Take care in the countryside.