Tuesday afternoon saw the fourth sinister outbreak of fire in the Guardamar pine forests just one week and everything now seems to indicate that, like all the previous ones, it is intentional. Three airborne units, two forestry brigades and vehicles from Almoradí and Torrevieja have been despatched to extinguish the flames

The Provincial Consortium of Firefighters said that they were able to control the fire fairly quickly and in the last hour they have withdrawn two of the three aerial units that were being used.

The Consortium had mobilised three aerial units – two helicopters and one aircraft, as well as two forest brigades, in addition to vehicles from the Vega Sur station in Torrevieja and the substation in Almoradí to stop a new forest fire that was reported at 17,30 hours this afternoon in the pinewood area of Guardamar del Segura.

It is the fourth fire that has broken out in the same area of ​​the municipality in the last week, with the police saying that everything seems to point to arson, although that is yet to be confirmed.

The affected area is the same as on the previous three occasions, the main outbreak being located between the south of the mouth of the River Segura and the homes adjacent to the Babylon beach, according to sources from the Consortium.

The pinewood of Guardamar, next to the dunes, the beaches and the sea characterise the landscape of the municipality. It is a wooded area that was planted more than a century ago to prevent the sand dunes from spreading into the town centre.