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AFP
MADRID
IT could take another 10 days to put out a huge fire at a tyre dump near Madrid, regional authorities said on Monday, though residents have already been allowed to return to the area.
Some 10,000 people living in the town of Sesena near the Spanish capital evacuated their homes Friday after the dump went up in flames after a suspected arson attack.
Spanish authorities allowed the residents to return home Saturday, saying that the toxic fumes billowing from the rubber heap posed less of a risk.
The regional Castilla-La Mancha authorities in a statement estimated that"when the fire is completely extinguished (between a week and ten days) there will still be 30,000 tonnes of tyres able to be recycled and reused".
The blaze broke out before dawn last Friday in the dump that stretches over 10 hectares (25 acres) -- the equivalent of about 10 rugby fields -- and straddles the Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid regions.
A massive black cloud of fumes billowed into the air, prompting widespread health concerns. The Castilla-La Mancha government had warned that the smoke was"toxic."
The massive stack of tyres started to form in the 1990s when a company began using the site as a temporary depot for old tyres due to be recycled, and it grew from then on.
