Nerja wildfire extinguished after seven-hour battle A wildfire in almost inaccessible forest country outside Nerja was extinguished at 20:15 on Wednesday after more than seven hours, the second blaze in the Axarquia in two days. A wildfire that broke out in forest country outside Nerja on Wednesday has been extinguished after more than seven hours of work by firefighting crews, in the second blaze to hit the Axarquia in as many days. The fire started shortly before one o'clock in the afternoon in a forested area of Nerja, in difficult ground between the La Puerta and El Tajo del Almendro zones. Flames took hold in an area that firefighters described as almost inaccessible, a landscape of steep gullies and dry Mediterranean scrub that makes it hard to get people and vehicles close to the fire front. By early evening the Plan Infoca, the Andalusian wildfire response service, had the blaze contained, and at a quarter past eight on Wednesday night it was formally declared extinguished. No injuries were reported, and the fire did not reach homes or the town itself. WHAT MADE THIS FIRE DIFFICULT Two things worked against the crews. The first was the terrain. The hills behind Nerja drop steeply from the Sierra Almijara towards the coast, and the fire sat in a zone where tracks end and everything beyond has to be reached on foot or from the air. The second was the season. October fires catch everyone off guard. The summer heat is gone, but the vegetation is not. After months without rain, rosemary, gorse and dry grasses in the hills east of Malaga will burn just as readily in late October as in August, and the message from the crews who worked this fire is that they should not have to keep proving it. A PATTERN ACROSS THE AXARQUIA Wednesday's fire in Nerja was the second wildfire in the Axarquia in two days. In the early hours of Tuesday, another blaze broke out near the Calaceite area of Torrox, on the other side of the same mountain range, where firefighters worked through the night before bringing it under control by mid-morning. Two fires in forty-eight hours, in hills that sit directly above some of the most densely visited coastline in the province, is not a coincidence but a warning. The eastern Costa del Sol has a growing resident population, an even larger visiting population, and a flammable belt of protected mountain behind both. The fire in Nerja started in open country, but the same wind and the same vegetation sit above roads, campsites and villages. WHAT IT MEANS FOR VISITORS THIS WEEKEND The All Saints long weekend begins on Friday, and the trails above Nerja and Frigiliana are among the most walked in the province at this time of year. Anyone heading into the hills should take the fire as a reminder rather than a reason to stay away. Go early, carry water, do not light anything, and check the Infoca advisories before setting out, because a fire perimeter can be reopened if wind changes. For residents, the practical lesson is the same one the fire services repeat every autumn. Do not burn garden waste, stubble or rubbish without checking the burning season with the town hall, because permissions are suspended when the risk rises, and a spark in the wrong gully becomes a night like Wednesday's. Firefighters from the provincial consortium and the Plan Infoca worked the Nerja blaze with ground crews and aerial support until the last embers were out, and the area will remain under surveillance in the coming days. That aftercare matters: wildfires are not finished when the smoke stops, and hot spots in steep terrain can flare back to life days later. Nerja itself was untouched, the Balcon de Europa was full of people as usual on Wednesday evening, and the town goes into the long weekend open for business. The hills above it, for the moment, are closed in every way that matters.