9.55: President Zapatero visited Galicia yesterday, his helicopter landing a few yards from my friends’ house on top of the charcoaled mountain south of Pontevedra city, now almost visible from my window. The only warmth in his welcome was from the ground he walked on, the exhausted locals not being in a mood to cheer his arrival. A few of them were uncharitable enough to note it would have been nice to see the diggers brought in to make fire-breaks before they provided a good photo opportunity.

Pontevedra was chosen for the focus of Zapatero’s visit because it has suffered disproportionately in the last 10 days. It has now lost almost 10% of its surface area to the fires and the economic damage to the province could well be huge. And it is not over yet; last night 120 fires were still burning in Galicia, 70 of them uncontrolled. One local mayor has called for a meeting on 17 August of all parties affected so that a start can be made on assessing the damage and planning a recovery. Fittingly, this is The Day of Galician Martyrs.

Eight more arrests have been made – bringing the total to 14 - and the official view continues to be there’s an organised band of criminals at work. The arrests include two fire brigade members, one of whom is accused of starting 30 fires near the coastal town of Redondela, close to Vigo. The last time anything as bad as this happened there was when Francis Drake sacked the area. Most astonishingly, a woman of 72 is accused of starting more than 30 fires this year and 50 in previous years. Since she sounds to be rather deranged, was denounced by all her neighbours and has never been caught red-handed, one wonders whether this isn’t something of a witch-hunt. As they say even along the Galician coast, the Gallegos who live in the hills are ‘very odd’. Madrid it isn’t but Salem it may be. If history is anything to go by, very few of those accused will be successfully prosecuted and imprisoned for arson.

For photos of the devastation, go toÚltimos álbumes and Otras galerías of the Voz de Galicia

More anon.