A FORMER managing director of The Bolton News helped to combat a raging blaze threatening homes on Spain's Costa Blanca as a volunteer firefighter.

Eric Henshaw is a member of the local Bomberos Voluntarios corps that worked alongside professional crews to confront the large-scale forest fire.

Families and holidaymakers were evacuated from their accommodation as the flames advanced towards communities 75km south-west of the city of Valencia.

Mr Henshaw and his wife Lorraine moved out to live in their holiday home of more than a decade on a residential development, or urbanizacion, called Cumpre Del Sol in the village of Benitachell in 2014.

He said: "Two years ago there was another very big fire on the mountain. We live at the top of the mountain and it came very close to destroying the apartments and after that I decided to join the voluntary brigade because they were asking for volunteers.

"It's very difficult to recruit because most of the people on the urbanizacion are retired and so we're a bit like a Dad's Army of firefighters. I'm 67 and I'm the youngest.

"I worked at Greater Manchester Fire Service in the mid-to-late 1970s before I joined newspapers and I was stationed at Trafford Park."

The deliberate blaze broke out at a viewing point on the mountain and a change in the wind direction fanned the flames towards the parched hillsides of Benitachell.

Mr Henshaw, who left The Bolton News in 2008, said: "The nearest professional fire brigade is based about 30 or 40 minutes' drive away so we're usually called out for first response and after a short time it had become a bigger fire than we could contain."

The Bomberos Voluntarios were called out later that same evening and on again Monday when Cumpre Del Sol was evacuated.

Mr Henshaw said: "Pine trees burn very quickly. They almost explode when the flames touch them.

"Quite a lot of the villas on the urbanizacion were under threat. Some windows were cracked with the heat and the walls were blackened. Clumps of burning pine trees were falling off and burning garden furniture.

"The flames were 30ft high and you're in danger if the fire gets behind you and burns through the hose or cuts you off.

"It was very tiring because it is very physical actually fighting the fires, hauling around those hoses, climbing up and down the steps of villas and patios."

The volunteer fire brigade is funded largely by donations and relies on more simplistic, outdated equipment but has proved a valuable asset for the close-knit community made up of Spanish locals and a large ex-pat community of other Europeans.

Mr Henshaw said: "The local mayor has praised the Bomberos Voluntarios and they are planning a fundraiser for us. We have had a lot of praise from a lot of locals.

"It's like a lunar landscape now, like somebody has poured acid on the area.

"This ranks among the biggest and most severe fires I've ever fought."