Anthony Piovesan
Long-awaited rains have finally fallen in the drought-stricken Andalucia, and just at the right time to help extinguish a raging forest fire in Malaga.
More than 40 specialist firefighters from the Junta de Andalucia’s Plan Infoca brigade tackled the blaze in the Malaga municipality of Benahavis about 9pm on Tuesday.
The flames lit up the night sky as Infoca released shocking images online of the fire stretching across the rolling Benahavis hills.
Infoca declared the fire stabilised about 12am on Wednesday.
The latest update came about 12.30pm – Infoca said the fire was officially extinguished, with a bout five hectares of scrub scorched.
Two groups of firefighters were sent to the scene in the Campanes road area, while regular firefighters from the Malaga provincial brigade also attended.
About 45 forest firefighters attended in total.
Long-awaited rain which fell across Andalucia on Tuesday helped extinguish the blaze.
Southern Spain sweltered through an extremely hot and dry summer, causing many fires to ravage across the region over the past few months.
Fires also continued to occur throughout autumn as the warm weather stuck around.
Dams across Andalucia are near record lows, especially Malaga’s Viñuela reservoir.
The dam is currently at 9.5% of its total capacity which is 164,37 cubic hectometres.
In 2008 it registered its lowest figure at 9.2%.
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