The blaze in the Sierra de Gádor continues tonight unabated, and high winds of up to 85 kph only served to fan the blaze.
As night fell, 50 fire fighting specialists from the Army’s UME (Emergency Military Unit) arrived with heavy fire fighting trucks, to reinforce the more than 200 professional firefighters already in the area.
14 homes have been evacuated, and at midday the fire threatened the village of Enix, although firefighters managed to avert the threat, and people in the town who had been on high alert were allowed to relax.
Currently, the town of Alhama de Almería is under threat, and most of the fire fighters continue their efforts to protect the homes in the area.
The high winds at midday had grounded most of the aerial units which normally help control fires, with the exception of two military class helicopters which continued to pour water on the flames.
The fire fighting planes were unable to scoop water from the sea, due to the high winds and waves, and so were useless today.
The fire is now the worst forest fire to hit Spain this year. There is no clue as to why the fire started. Gádor, Enix & Santa Fé de Mondújar have all been affected, and the main roads in the area were cut.
Much of the burnt area is protected mountain forest, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of pine trees have gone up in smoke.
A specialist unit of 30 inspectors from the Guardia Civil, National Police and INFOCA are onsight, assessing the ecological damage and trying to discover where, and why, the fire started.