The first forest fire of the year has taken place near Alicante between Ibi and Jijona.The alarm was raised at about 2pm last Sunday anf firemen and forest workers worked until 7pm before the blaze was under control.

There was damage to around 15 hectares of land,mainly pine forest.The cause of the fire has not yet been established but the experts have been examining the weather conditions and think that it was started deliberately.

At one point the fire was feared to have affected the Aitana Military base but luckily the fire crews averted that possible disaster.The fire crews remained on alert throughout the night to ensure that there was no recurrance of the blaze.Helicopters had been deployed during the afternoon and the Guardia Civil were called in to ensure that no civilian people entered the zone.

The blaze had been totally put out by the following morning and a spokesperson for the Jijona council praised the work of all of the emergency services.