Huge operation to fight Andratx forest fire

Majorca was hit by yet another forest fire yesterday as the bush fire season gets off to one of its worst starts for several summers. The alarm was raised in the early hours of yesterday morning in the Ses Basses area along the road which runs from the town and Andratx to Estellencs. Within minutes of the emergency services arriving at the scene a rural property near the blaze was evacuated and a large stretch of the road closed off because of thick smoke reducing visibility along the road. The operation was co-ordinated by the Guardia Civil and the Balearic government's 112 emergency control centre which called in the services of a Canadair fire fighter plane which had to be scrambled in Madrid in the early hours of the morning. The Canadair flew continuous sorties over the blaze, picking up water in the bay of Alcudia and then dumping thousands of litres of water on the flames throughout the day as the fire spread across an area of 40 hectares.