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A large fire is raging at the end of Mojacar Playa.

The fire is between Los Amigos and the hotels at the end of the Playa.

I am told that emergency services have evacuated the area and are trying to control the situation.

At 11:30pm the fire was behind both end hotels but it appears that so far it has not spread to any more buildings. Use the comments box to update us with news.

Photo courtesy of Luke Polansky:

http://www.villadeturre.com/

From Turre town hall.

Cabrera and Cortijo Grande are all reopened and things are getting back to normal.

Lots of Junta vans everywhere, assessing the damage and building an ecological report up.

Guardia Civil are still present at most entrances to the mountains, unofficially I’m told that they are there to discourage any light handed Larries who may take it upon themselves to start the “cleanup” early. A few plains clothes, too!

Two fires remain, but they were both declared “controlled” at around 19.30 last night and are expected to be out by early afternoon today.

The Junta believes that “upwards” of 5,000 ha were burnt, but said in a press conference that they believe only one cortijo was burnt, although a number had light exterior damage from the heat that looks worse than it really is.

So it appears that the only house destroyed was Finca Listonero, the famous restaurant. My sympathy goes out to the affected, and also Carol and Mark who had recently leased it and invested quite a bit in reopening the restaurant.

Just in from the Junta, via the townhall.

Around 4,000 ha were burnt in the fire. 600 civilians plus the military were involved in putting it out.

They have confirmed that one house has been gutted by fire, but refused to confirm further damages. No injuries have been reported.

Two fires remain but are both reported as being under control and expect to be put out before nightfall.

Cortijo Grande has been reopened, at least the lower half. The upper half and Cabrera are still closed. Roads must still be cleared and not obstructed under any circumstances.

A large plume of smoke shot up 20 mins ago to the far right of Cabrera and helicopters have moved over.

Plumes of smoke are still coming out from the other side of the mountains.

Finca Listonero and some houses nearby are a “bulldozer job” according to an eyewitness, although the whole area there is still sealed off by Guardia officers who are assessing the damage. Not even the townhall is allowed in yet.

It appears that the fire mainly danced over the golf course, due to the amount of greenery there. Fire fighters concentrated their efforts on protecting population centres, but outlying cortijos were on their own.

The fire reached Sopalmo and Carboneras. The latest estimate of the damage from the townhall is between 3,600 to 4,000 square ha burnt, which is a huge amount.

Pat Weston from Arriba Bar has just sent me this:

Just to let you know it seems that the fire is still going but at the back
of Hotel Puerto Marina I think most of the army has gone past – we have
Arriba Bar so are quite high up on the playa and there are bomberos in high
numbers going up there – hope no one gets hurt

If you use Facebook, Prensa Turre (which is a facebook account used by the Turre town hall) is going up through the mountains and updating the public via phone.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/prensaturre?ref=mf

Currently, he reports that the road is only open as far as Cortijo Grande, and you need to be a home owner to go that far.

Not too much damage to the small hamlets of Los Moralicos, Cufrias, La Carrasca.

Howard Dickson sent me this rather amazing photo, taken looking south from Los Llanos (Cucador).

And Petter Finne (from the Advertiser) sent me this one, taken last night up above Mojacar as the flames came over towards Cabrera

Thanks chaps. Keep those photos coming!

Here are some photos sent to me by John Furley, taken early this morning.

I should stress that now (12.51) only a few plumes of smoke from the other side of the mountain are visible, but plenty of planes and activity still going on. The road to Cortijo Grande is still closed, although a number of private cars have been escorted to the entrance where they are waiting, so it may be that house owners will shortly be allowed back up.

Cabrera, taken by long range lens. When blown up, you can see a lot of greenery is still there, so it seems as if the main place is OK.However, in this one you can still see a house burning. The houses below it also look a bit damaged, although it may just be soot.

John also sent this photo, taken around 16.00 yesterday, of the smoke coming off the mountains. He was just outside the Blue Lagoon on Mojacar Playa.

Keep sending in those photos, they may be used in The Reader!

Infoca, the forest fire people, say that the probably cause of the fire was a lightening strike from the storms we had yesterday.

While Almeria city and Albox suffered intermittent showers throughout the day, the Levante just had a dry thunderstorm, steady winds and temperatures of up to 40ºC.

I had over 1,046 more visitors in 8 hours yesterday than I normally receive, and have received around 30 emails asking for more information on the fire.

I can’t really get into specifics with individuals over the email, but I’ll keep posting what little I know here.

Currently, the police are still making safe the area and won’t let anyone up. According to Local Police, if all goes well and the fire experts say OK, house owners may be allowed back up this afternoon.

I’ll keep skulking around the area and as soon as they let me up I’ll come back with some more photos and updates.

If you have any decent photos of the fire or aftermath, send them over and I’ll post them.

There was also a small fire in Sorbas, which was extinguished by helicopter, and at around 12:30 last night the La Parata area of Mojacar was evacuated due to another fire. Police refused to say if these fires were started deliberatly.