Hundreds of Spanish firefighters battled an expanding wildfire that was raging near the popular Mediterranean tourist destination of Costa Brava and had confined thousands to their homes on Friday.
The blaze started in the morning near the municipality of La Bisbal d’Emporda in the northeastern region of Catalonia, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from a picturesque coastline usually full of summer holidaymakers.
Strong winds whipped up the fire and prompted the regional authorities to ask residents of 10 municipalities to stay at home, including the popular Platja d’Aro beach resort.
Footage shared by the Catalan fire service showed helicopters swooping to drop water on the flames amid thick masses of grey and orange smoke billowing from hilly, forested terrain.
“The column (of smoke) is very slanted, it has formed a very violent pyrocumulus,” said Catalan fire service chief David Borrell, warning that “the difficulty is that it will not be static”.
More than 200 firefighters have been deployed, including aerial resources, the service said.
It advised the population to help by avoiding travel to the area, a common weekend getaway for Barcelona residents.
Catalan leader Salvador Illa requested the intervention of the army’s emergencies unit as the wind made conditions worse.
Spain is on the front line of climate change, which scientists say increases the intensity, frequency and duration of the extreme heat that fuels wildfires.
Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in the country last year, the highest figure recorded by the European Forest Fire Information System.
