Kirsty Mckenzie
MORE than 100 firefighters are tackling raging forest fires in Tarragona in the north east of Spain.
The blaze, which has ripped through the municipalities of Bellprat, Les Piles and Santa Coloma de Queralt, began in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Overnight, 270 firemen worked around the clock to manage the flames and 12 aircrafts remain at the scene today.
Billows of black smoke can be seen for as far as 60 kilometers away and its ashes have reached some neighborhoods in Barcelona.
It comes after a blaze broke out in at a farm Torre de l’Espanyol on Wednesday, tearing through more than 4,000 hectares in surrounding areas in Vinebre, la Palma d’Ebre, Flix and Maials.
The head of the Catalan Fire Department, David Borrell, said it was hard to ‘be optimistic’ about putting out the wildfires across Tarragon.
He said: “The terrain is complicated, this generates a lot of difficulties, the weather conditions are not favorable. This means we are overwhelmed and are having to work very hard to achieve our objectives.
“The problem is not so much the resources available but rather the difficulty of the terrain and the weather conditions.”
Fire chief Manuel Pardo told Catalunya Ràdio that it had been ‘very hard’ to defeat the wildfires as temperatures fall and humidity levels rise overnight.
Spain’s AEMET weather service has forecast that the heatwave affecting most of the country could last until this evening.
Winds are predicted to blow towards the north this evening, towards the municipality of Tous, and firefighters are doing everything they can to contain the blaze to prevent further destruction.
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