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Spanish wildfires kill three people Spanish wildfires kill father and daughter
(about 3 hours later)
Three people have died after forest fires broke out in Girona province, north-east Spain. A French family of five jumped off a seaside cliff in a desperate attempt to escape a raging wildfire, with the father and one of his children plummeting some 50m to their deaths, authorities said on Monday.
The area in Catalonia is close to the French border and home to one of the most popular beach destinations in Spain, the Costa Brava. Flames forced the family and about 150 other tourists out of their cars on Sunday night as most were returning home to France, and the group scrambled down hillsides towards the beach in the border town of Portbou on the Costa Brava to escape the blaze, said deputy mayor Elisabet Cortaba.
Strong winds hindered firefighters' efforts on Sunday and have so far spread two fires over 13,000 hectares (22,000 acres). The French family of five got separated from the rest of the group on their way down and ended up at the cliff with no way out as the fire fanned by heavy winds approached them, Cortaba said.
A man and his 15-year-old daughter were killed after jumping off a cliff to escape the flames, while a third person died of a heart attack. El País newspaper said 19 people had been injured. "The fire started to close in on them and they couldn't climb up or climb down," she said after speaking with witnesses. "The only way out was to jump into the sea."
About 80km (50 miles) of roads have been cut off in the area, a big artery for holidaymakers making their way to and from southern France in the coastal province. Residents were being told to stay at home, while the winds were pushing the fires towards Figueres, a town of around 50,000 people. The 60-year-old father died instantly after landing on rocks, and his 15-year-old daughter drowned, Cortaba said. The mother was in critical condition on Monday with a back injury, and the son and other daughter did not suffer life-threatening injuries. All were fished out of the sea by Portbou boaters and their identities were not released, Cortaba said.
Train services in the region were suspended and several cross-border roads linking Barcelona with France were closed because of the advancing flames, a regional government spokesman, Felip Puig, said on Sunday. Two other people were also killed by the weekend fires in northeastern Spain that have burned across 35 square miles, including one man who had a heart attack dousing flames around his home. Spanish media said both of those victims were also French.
Santiago Villa, the mayor of Figueres, which houses the Salvador Dalí museum, said he had ordered the 44,000 residents to stay indoors until further notice. Many of the tourists that made it to the beach in Portbou suffered injuries ranging from broken bones and burns in their dash down the hillsides, Cortaba said.
The fire service said in a statement that more than 80 teams had been deployed to combat the wildfires, which appear to have started close to the border with France. The fires that broke out on Sunday in several parts of the Catalonia region forced more than 1,400 people to stay the night in shelters.
The interior ministry said it had sent three specially equipped aircraft and an emergency unit from Zaragoza to aid Catalan firefighters. Train services in the region were suspended and several cross-border roads linking Barcelona with France were closed on Sunday because of the advancing flames.
State broadcaster TVE said in a late news bulletin that high winds were making it difficult for firefighting aircraft to work at their full potential. Santiago Villa, mayor of Figueres, which houses the famous Salvador Dali museum, said he had ordered the city's 44,000 residents to stay indoors until further notice.
Eight of the injured were in serious condition, TVE said. The fire service said that more than 80 teams had been deployed to combat the wildfires.
The interior ministry said that it had sent three specially equipped aircraft and an emergency unit to aid firefighters.
A north wind called the Tramontana is a regular feature in mountainous northeastern Spain, and its strong gusts that often exceed 100 mph can spread fires rapidly across the heavily forested area.