Spanish prime minister visits pine blaze
Aug 2 2007 12:00AM
The Spanish prime minister has made an emergency visit to the fire-ravaged Canary Islands.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero delayed a personal holiday to visit the region, where wild fires have recently destroyed over a third of the pine forests.
Over 13,000 people have already been forced to evacuate their homes to escape the fires - and commentators are calling the blaze an unprecedented ecological disaster.
Mr Zapatero has called an emergency cabinet meeting to approve special aid for those affected.
As reported by the Independent, he emphasised that those responsible for the fires, which are thought to have been started deliberately, "would receive the full weight of the law".
The fire on Gran Canaria appears to have been started by a forest warden, in order to get his temporary contract as a firefighter extended.
On the Spanish mainland, fires have devastated woodland near Seville, Cordoba and Valencia, encouraged by 40C temperatures.