21/08/2013 00:00
TW
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Palma.—Under-pressure fire fighters and emergency services spent yesterday afternoon battling two fronts in Calvia.
The first alarm was raised at 14.45 in Portals Vells where a fire was spotted in the pine forest.
A helicopter and two planes fought the flames from the air while three units from the Council of Majorca fire brigade and members of the Ibanat forestry commission tackled the blaze on the ground.

Soller fire fighters also helped.
By 5pm, the fire, which at times threatened moving down to the beach, leading to it being evacuated and cars removed from the area, was declared under control after having torched 3.14 hectares of woodland.

Shortly after, the Son Bugadelles fire, which broke out along the old road in an area known as Cas Cocons, was also declared extinguished while fire fighters remained in Portals Vells dousing the smoldering embers of the fire and making sure the hot winds did not revive the blaze. Only 300 square metres of scrubland was destroyed near Son Bugadelles but that too was battled on the ground and from the air.

Nearly 2'300 hectares of wood and scrub land has been torched by forest fires in the Balearics this year.