MADRID  - Emergency services battled to control forest fires in central Spain Sunday and police arrested a man believed to have started one of the blazes in the parched interior of the country, local officials said.
Police detained the man thought to be responsible for one of three fires consuming thousands of hectares (acres) of land in the central regions of Castille-La Mancha and Castille-Leon. That blaze was close to a Repsol oil refinery in the town of Puertollano which was under control, a government official said, adding that the refinery had at no point been in danger.
In the province of Guadalajara, hundreds of people were evacuated from towns in and around a natural park where a fire raged despite the efforts of firefighters, officials said.
The cause of the blaze was a barbecue which had not been fully extinguished.
In Zamora province, also in central Spain, a fire which had consumed about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) was now manageable, a government spokesman said.
Spain is suffering its worst drought since the 1940s, with some reservoirs in the south at less than 20 percent capacity.
In Madrid, an annual water fight which traditionally takes place as part of a fiesta in the district of Vallecas will go ahead Sunday, despite a recommendation from Madrid's town hall it should not because of the drought.
But organizers said the battle would last half as long as usual with water limited to 6 tankers holding 8,000 litres each.