Maro saw its second fire this year yesterday when a blaze broke out in the area of the vega beside the village itself, in the Barranco de La Caleta.

Maro saw its second fire this year yesterday when a blaze broke out in the area of the vega beside the village itself, in the Barranco de La Caleta.

The first fire in the Maro area this year was in April near the Atalaya within the paraje natural de los acantilados.

Yesterday’s fire started on farmland and the strong wind did the rest, pushing the fire southwards towards the sea, burning a path almost a kilometre long. Owing to the fire, the N-340 had to be closed to traffic at kilometre point 297.

The fire broke out around 11.00h Sunday and owing to the wind it was still out of control at 18.00h that same afternoon, as dusk fell.

Despite the efforts of 30 fire fighters and two Super Puma helicopter carrying out water-bombing runs, the fire reached the Acantilados area of this protected area.

Although what exactly caused the fire has not been determined the main hypothesis is that somebody had been burning cuttings, despite the strong winds. Such was the height of some of the flames when trees burst into flames that residents piled out into the streets to see what was happening, as the flames were within 200 metres of the urban area of Maro.

At the time of the writing of the article the fire has consumed four hectares of farmland, mainly avocado and chirimoya plantations, as well as plastic greenhouses.

Update: the fire was declared “controlado” around seven this morning and that units were mopping up the last of the hot spots and damping down.

(News: Maro/Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Photo: stills from Video)