Spanish police arrest four over new forest fires

Three of the latest arrests were in the northwest Castilla y León region where about 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of land has been devastated by fire, the civil guard said. Two volunteers have died battling the flames there this week.

One man was detained Thursday over a fire in which 3,000 hectares of land burned around Puercas de Aliste in Castilla y León, the civil guard said.

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Another suspect was arrested on Wednesday over six forest fires between July 19th and August 3rd around the southern resort of Málaga.

"Some of these fires were started very close to homes," said a civil guard statement.

Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told RAC1 radio on Wednesday that 25 other people had been detained for starting fires this summer and that many had been intentional.

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Marta Corella, vice-dean of the Official College of Forestry Engineers, stated that more than 80 percent of forest fires in Spain are caused by human activity, either intentionally or through negligence.

One of the key factors is that many rural areas have been abandoned, and where there used to be crops or cattle pastures, there are now bushes that fuel fires, especially in conditions like the current ones with wind and heat waves.