QUITO – A new fire started by people burning trash scorched an upland area in San Cristobal, one of Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, Galapagos National Park spokesmen said.

The blaze burned four hectares (nearly 10 acres), but no details on injuries or environmental damage were provided.

The fire spread due to the drought conditions and high temperatures on the island, park officials said.

The wildfire on San Cristobal broke out a week after a blaze on Isabela Island affected about 90 hectares (222 acres).

The blaze on Isabela Island was brought under control over the weekend.

The Galapagos Islands are located about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of the coast of continental Ecuador and were declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.


Some 95 percent of the territory’s 8,000 sq. kilometers (a little over 3,000 sq. miles) constitutes a protected area that is home to more than 50 species of animals and birds found nowhere else on the planet.

The islands were made famous by 19th-century British naturalist Charles Darwin, whose observations of life on the islands contributed greatly to his theory of the evolution of species. EFE