Firefighters tackle forest blazes in Spain

Madrid, June 29 (IANS) A wildfire that spread through a national park in southeastern Spain has been brought under control, but efforts to tackle a separate blaze in the country's east were ongoing, firefighting services said on Thursday.

Forest fire specialists managed to subdue a blaze that erupted on Wednesday evening in the Cabo de Gata-Nijar National Park in the Mediterranean province of Almeria in Andalusia, which is home to one of Europe's few warm desert climates, reports Efe news.

Emergency workers evacuated around a hundred people from the small town of Pozo de los Frailes de N?jar as preventative measure.

Some 63 firefighters worked to tackle the blaze, aided by two fire trucks and ten water-dropping planes.

Cabo de Gata-Nijar is famed for its biodiversity and hosts protected birdlife.

Spain's dry southern regions are susceptible to wildfires as temperatures rise in the summer. Some 500 km further up the coast, near the eastern city of Valencia, firefighters were battling a separate blaze.

The flames in the Sierra Calderona National Park, which straddles the provinces of Valencia and Castellon, continued to burn 12 hours after the forest fire erupted.

Emergency workers were working to subdue the wildfire.

The fire, which spans 267 hectares so far, posed no threat to nearby settlements, but firefighters warned of strong winds of up to 50km/h that have fanned the blaze.

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