The disastrous blaze was sparked in weird circumstances, as a 27-year-old German national allegedly set fire to some toilet paper after relieving himself in the woods near a cave in which he apparently lives, because he didn’t want to leave rubbish behind. He told officers he had started the fire by accident by setting alight toilet paper after defecating in an area full of pine needles and other flammable vegetation.
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Reports have emerged that a German man could have been to blame for starting the wildfire. A Civil Guard patrol dispatched to the area detected him as he walked along the road when the forest fire alarm had already gone off.
The fire in the Jedey mountains on the Canary Island of La Palma broke out on Wednesday. The man was married and had five daughters.
Around 700 local residents had to be evacuated.
The forest worker died on Thursday while helping to control the fire. By Thursday morning extra number of firefighters and water-dropping planes were sent from the mainland and neighboring islands.
Spain’s acting minister of agriculture and the environment, Isabel Garcia Tejerina, told COPE radio that the four-day-old blaze has consumed between 3,500-4,000 hectares of forest, up from the 2,000 hectares terrain destroyed through Friday.
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Homes were evacuated in and around the town of El Paso as the wildfire raged out of control in the north of the Canary Island. The island is a popular tourist destination and the wildfire comes at the height of a record summer holiday season.
