15/08/2013 00:00
TW
0

by Staff Reporter
THREE fire-fighting stations on Majorca together with air and land resources belonging to “Ibanat”, the Balearics Natural Habitat Protection Unit, worked to extinguish a fire which blazed in the locality of a wooded zone known as Puig de Es Cugulutx, between Sant Joan, Montuïri and Porreres. In the last ten days, this conflagration has re-igniated on at least two occasions. According to sources close to the firemen's units, the fire began about 1.30pm for reasons that are still unknown but which apparently had three points of origin. Joana Xamena, the director general of Biodiversity, a Ministry department, confirmed that at the scene of the blaze, located in an area where “access is extremely difficult” by land, officers from the fire-fighting stations of Manacor, Felanitx and Can Picafort have combined their efforts with those of Ibanat who had also made their aerial fire-fighting equipment available. Two helicopters and two air tractors were involved in the operations.
Tackling the fire “proved complicated” because of the searing temperatures and the problems of reaching the affected area.
According to the Environment department of the Council of Majorca, the fire could have burned between 2.5 and 3 hectares of forest land, principally pine trees. It broke out at the 35 kilometre mark on the roadway that links Palma with Manacor in an area between the localities of Sant Joan, Porreres and Montuïri. The affected area of Camí Cugulutx is located close to another site where at least two more fires of this type have broken out in the last ten days. Arson has not been discounted. Meanwhile, the Regional Government of Catalonia on the mainland of Spain is considering asking for assistance from
Arson has not been ruled out as a cause of the fire although it is too early to confirm the Spanish army in helping quench the fire of Sant Llorenc Savall, in the Vallés area of Barcelona which, still flaring, has already burned more than 4'500 hectars. The same sources have confirmed that a seaplane belonging to the Ministry of the Environment originally stationed in Pollensa, and used extensively to fight the recent fires in the Balearics, and a “caterpillar” excavator belonging to the Army were added yesterday to other equipment being used in the onslaught. The fire-fighting plane has added its services to another two of its kind were were already working on the scene.