MADRID For 22-year-old Cristian Garcia the split with his girlfriend was devastating. Her love letters to him were proof of a passion that had since died, so he took them to a skip near her home in Valencia, set them on fire and drove off. Three years later Garcia has lost a lot more than his girlfriend.

A court in eastern Spain this week handed Garcia a suspended prison sentence and Euro 1.2 million damages for the forest fire that he inadvertently started when he burnt the love letters.

With winds gusting at 65kph, the flames jumped from the skip into local woodland. Within hours thousands of hectares were burning.

Villagers and townsfolk from Gandia, Benifairo, Xeraco, Xeresa, Simat de la Valldigna and Barx fled their homes and spent the night fighting the flames.

Traffic had to be stopped on several roads and the port at Gandia was shut because of the smoke. In the end, the army and firefighting aircraft had to be called in to battle the flames, which continued to rage for three more days.

Local authorities told the court that the fire had cost Euro 195,000 to fight. Reforestation of the 1,900 hectares that were eventually burned is costing a further Euro one million.

Judges gave Garcia an 18-month suspended prison sentence and ordered him to pay the Euro 1.2 million costs generated by the fire.

It was not clear how he was going to do that. Nor was there mention of whether the fire had also rekindled the love of his former girlfriend.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service