Land Life, a Netherlands-based company with offices in Spain and the US, said the fire broke out on Monday at one of its reforestation projects in Ateca in the northeastern region of Aragon. The company said the fire, which is estimated to have destroyed 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of land, was started after a spark escaped from an excavator used by one of its contractors to prepare land for winter tree planting. The fire, which was finally brought under control late Thursday, led to the evacuation of 1,700 people from the surrounding area. The company said it had alerted emergency services as soon as the fire started and “deeply regretted” the damage and inconvenience caused. “We are devastated by the latest estimate that the damage will be around 14,000 hectares,” Land Life said. “We deeply sympathize with the feelings of the local community who have had to evacuate their homes and see their landscape severely damaged.” Land Life said it was offering its assistance to the authorities and had launched an investigation into what happened. “We will continue to monitor anything we can do in this situation,” he added. “We would like to emphasize that the contractor, a local company with extensive experience in the area, had the appropriate authorization issued by the local and regional authorities.” According to Spanish media, Land Life was accused of starting another fire in the area last month that burned 20 hectares of land. “It is not right for them to continue working when this has already happened once,” the mayor of Bubierca, one of the evacuated villages, told El Heraldo de Aragón. Land Life says it is committed to helping restore degraded land around the world. According to its website: “Land Life Company was founded on the shared belief that an entrepreneurial approach and technology can drive innovation to restore nature in our lifetime.” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Two people have died in wildfires raging in many parts of Spain, while thousands have been evacuated. Spain is estimated to have lost almost 200,000 hectares of land to fires so far this year – 80,000 of them during last week’s heatwave and the one before it in June.
