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Train fire panic AROUND a dozen passengers on a train travelling through a wildfire suffered burns after they feared their carriage was about to be engulfed in flames and fled through a window. The train was travelling between Sagunto in the eastern province of Valencia, to Zaragoza in Aragon when the driver stopped as he saw flames approaching the track ahead. Realising that it was too dangerous to continue, he was attempting to put the engine in reverse and back off to the nearest station when panic broke out inside one of the carriages.
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Prime Minister Sanchez declares ‘disaster’ zones after fires sweep the region
Blaze
A number of passengers used the emergency hammer to break the glass and escaped through a window. But once outside they were scorched by the flames and returned to the carriage to seek refuge. “Once they saw that they were surrounded by fire they got back on the train and several of them had suffered burns,” confirmed state rail company Renfe. Two people had to be airlifted to hospital to be treated for serious burns while more than a dozen others, including a 10-year-old girl were taken to local hospitals. TWO different areas of the Comunidad de Valencia have been declared ‘disaster zones’ following the worst wildfires to hit the region in at least a decade. Hot dry winds fuelled a blaze centring around Bejis in eastern Valencia forcing the evacuation of around 2,200 people and destroying close to 20,000 hectares before it was brought under control on Sunday.
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did so to discover a blackened landscape, the smell of burning thick in the air and those buildings not destroyed by flames covered in a thick layer of ash. At the same time, further south along the coast in Alicante province, a wildfire tore through the Vall D’Ebo, threatening homes and ravaging a further Flames 12,000 hectares before it too was finally For six days teams of firefighters battled brought under control last Friday. a wall of flames that stretched across Spain’s government said Monday it a perimeter of 138 kilometres sending would classify regions struck by big a smoke plume that was visible all the wildfires this year as disaster zones, a way to Ibiza. move that will trigger emergency subTerrifying video footage showed fire- sidies and other financial support meafighters running for their lives as a tow- sures. ering inferno roared behind them. Standing in front of the skeletons of Residents finally allowed to return to charred trees in Bejis, Prime Ministheir homes in the towns of Bejis and ter Pedro Sanchez (pictured inset) acTeresa, Castellon province, on Monday knowledged the ‘psychological blow’ suffered by those who had lost their belongings to the flames, as well as the huge environPLUMBING & AIR CONDITIONING SPECIALISTS mental damage. “We are facing a Giastu Aroma 2 climate emergen2,5 kw R32 gas refrigerate A+++20db cy and these SPECIAL 3 years warranty OFFER
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fires require us to rethink how we deal fighting them and how to deal with the recovery of theplaces affected by them,” said Sanchez. “This is the hottest summer since such records began and future ones are going to get even hotter, “ he warned. So far this year Spain has suffered around 400 separate wildfires, during a summer marked by ferocious heatwaves and long dry spells.
Destroyed
More than 286,000 hectares have been destroyed across Spain, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) representing four times the average figure for the last decade, and almost six times more than the 2021 total. A total of 15 of Spain’s autonomous regions have had serious fires this year and will qualify for ‘disaster zone’ support with only the northern coastal regions of Cantabria and Asturias spared.
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AWE: An Olive Press reporter caught on camera a wall of flames as they raced towards the A-23. The fire threatened the villages of Toras, Viver and Teresa.