MOLLINA: A wind-fuelled fire ripped through a holiday park in Spain that is home to a large number of British pensioners, destroying dozens of homes and injuring two people, officials said on Monday.

The blaze broke out on Sunday afternoon at the Lazy Days holiday park in the southern town of Mollina, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) inland from the port of Malaga, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air.

Firefighters backed by a water-dropping helicopter took more than two hours to put out the blaze, which destroyed 40 prefab homes and damaged another three, local emergency services said. Another 17 homes escaped damage. Two people suffered first degree burns and were treated at the scene.

“It was a small fire but it just took off because of the wind,” said Carol Piper, a 76-year-old from Suffolk country near London who has lived at the holiday park on her own for the past year.

“Everything burned — my home, my passport, my debit card, everything,” she said. “All I got out was the dog. We had gas bottles blowing up, black smoke, it was awful. Awful.” Local authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the blaze.

Some people vacation at the holiday park but most of the some 70 residents are pensioners who live at the site year-round.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2020