MADRID: The forest fire on the island of La Palma the Canary Islands continued out of control. On Saturday evening dozens of houses and flats which had been evacuated were destroyed by the fire.

The regional authorities believe that so far the fire has destroyed between 1,500 and 2000 hectares of land although within this area some pockets of land could remain intact. Efforts to extinguish the fire currently involve 600 people.

Yesterday the drop in temperatures on La Palma and the change in the direction of the wind gave rise to some optimism. However, the fire still continued out of control last night and has now affected parts of the National Park. LINK