Ibiza wildfire rages near San Antonio resort popular with British tourists

Inferno: Air crews try to extinguish a forest fire in San Antonio, Ibiza
EPA
Hatty Collier8 August 2017

A huge wildfire raged in Ibiza near to a party resort popular with British tourists.

Flames engulfed trees near San Antonio, a popular nightlife spot on the west coast of the Balearic island, sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

Videos posted online show helicopters and planes shuttling water and dropping it on the inferno, which was said to be under control by 7.30pm.

Temperatures soared past 30C on Tuesday, with the blaze starting around 4pm according to witnesses, and growing quickly. There were no reports of injuries.

Recent graduate Jenna Scott, 21, who is in nearby Ocean Beach, said the emergency response was "pretty quick", adding: "We saw the fire through the trees which was very worrying... it looked like it spread very, very quickly.

"As scary as it is, the helicopter team seem to be slowly but surely putting the blaze out. It looks like it has completely died out now."

Roads were cordoned off and access around the popular nightlife hub was restricted as authorities worked to make it safe.

A wildfire rages near to San Antonio, Ibiza
PA

Student Emily Hood, 19, said: "When we came out of our hotel, there was quite a bit of smoke and we could see around two actual fires but around an hour or so later it had definitely spread.

"The emergency services have been really, really good."

At least one hotel was evacuated, with guest Alison Cope posting on Twitter: "Big fire close by. Not allowed back into hotel just yet. We are safe and everything is okay".

The tweet contained an image of a white hotel shrouded by dark smoke against a plain blue sky.

A series of forest fires have burned through parts of European countries like France, Italy and Portugal in recent weeks amid high temperatures and dry conditions.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT