Ranger Dies In Canaries Blaze After German Lights Toilet Paper

SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA, Spain, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th August, 2016) - A park ranger died while fighting a blaze in the Canary Islands allegedly sparked by a German man who defecated in the woods and then set fire to the toilet paper, authorities said Thursday. Some 700 people have been evacuated from areas near the blaze, sweeping through a wooded, mountainous area in La Palma, one of the lesser-known, unspoiled islands of the Spanish archipelago off the coast of Africa. The 54-year-old ranger died while working to put out the flames, the Atbrif union for forest fire fighters announced on Facebook. A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force told AFP a 27-year-old German man was arrested Wednesday afternoon, suspected of having caused the fire.

The man, whose identity has not been revealed, "told officers he accidentally provoked the blaze when he defecated...

and set fire to the toilet paper he used for that," the Guardia Civil added in a statement. Some 200 people were fighting the blaze, as are six helicopters and one plane, a spokeswoman for the Canary Islands' emergency services said. Weather conditions were not expected to make their task any easier, as high temperatures and strong winds fan the flames, she added. The Spanish government has announced it will send more planes and helicopters to fight the blaze.