Spain wildfire brought under control: authorities

Around 500 firefighters battling a wildfire in western Spain that has destroyed nearly 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) brought the blaze under control Sunday, local authorities said. Reinforcements had arrived from Portugal, which deployed around 100 firefighters along with teams from the neighbouring Spanish regions of Andalusia and Castille and Leon as well as some military personnel.

By late Sunday morning, the authorities said the wildfire was under control, although "risks of reactivation" remained in the Sierra de Gata mountain range, where the fire first broke out on Thursday. Some 2,400 residents who were evacuated from their homes have been allowed to return, and roads that were closed have been reopened, officials said. The cause of the fire was still not known but "all signs seem to indicate" arson, according to the head of the regional government, Guillermo Fernandez Vara.

"When a fire is concentrated in a very specific zone, it is because of human intervention, because it is not hotter or dryer in Sierra de Gata than in the rest of the Extremadura," he said. The Spanish civil guard has appealed to the public on Twitter to contact them with any information that might help determine the cause of the fire. Wildfires have destroyed more than 54,000 hectares of agricultural and forest land in Spain this year, exceeding the area burned over the last two years combined, according to the agriculture ministry.