Major Fire Tears Through La Manga Restaurant

Emergency services in Spain’s Murcia region said a fire tore through the ZM Isla del Ciervo restaurant in La Manga del Mar Menor on Wednesday morning, sending a thick column of black smoke over the seafront and drawing more than 20 calls to the 112 emergency center. The blaze broke out at about 8:28 a.m. near the Cavanna Beach area at kilometer 3 of La Manga, according to Murcia’s emergency service and Cartagena city officials. Fire crews from the Murcia regional fire consortium and Cartagena’s municipal fire service were sent to the site, along with Local Police and a 061 emergency medical unit. Officials said the fire was brought under control within about 45 minutes and that no injuries were reported. ### Which restaurant burned, and where is it? ZM Isla del Ciervo was the restaurant affected by the fire, according to Murcia Today, Europa Press and Cartagena city officials. The venue is on the La Manga strip in Cartagena, beside Isla del Ciervo and near the Cavanna Beach area, a stretch of coast where smoke was visible for miles, local reports said. (murciatoday.com) La Manga del Mar Menor is the narrow coastal strip in the Murcia region that separates the Mediterranean from the Mar Menor lagoon. The fire’s location at kilometer 3 placed it in one of the busier parts of the strip, close to hotels, apartments and beach businesses. That helped explain the volume of emergency calls and the immediate visibility of the smoke plume along the shoreline, according to the reports. (murciatoday.com) ### How did the response unfold on Wednesday morning? Murcia’s 112 emergency service said calls began coming in shortly after the fire started at 8:28 a.m. The agency dispatched Local Police patrols, firefighters from the CEIS La Manga station and Cartagena city firefighters, while a mobile emergency medical unit from the 061 service was sent as a precaution. (europapress.es) At 9:13 a.m., the officer in charge of the response declared the fire under control and said there was no risk of it spreading, according to the 112 service and Cartagena city officials. A few minutes later, the 061 unit left without having to treat anyone, and CEIS firefighters returned to their La Manga base at 10:04 a.m., the statements said. (noticias.112rmurcia.es) ### Were there injuries or evacuations? Cartagena Mayor Noelia Arroyo said there were structural damages at the site but no need to evacuate anyone from the area of the fire. COPE and Cartagena city officials both reported that no injuries were recorded. Antena 3 also reported that the restaurant was left burned out, while saying there were no injuries and that the cause of the fire was not yet known. (noticias.112rmurcia.es) Those accounts matched the official emergency statements issued on Wednesday. ### What is known about the cause? Officials on May 13 said the cause of the fire was still under investigation. (cartagena.es) Murcia Today, Europa Press and other local outlets all said the blaze began for reasons that had not yet been determined. Murcia Economía reported that firefighters ruled out any immediate risk of the blaze spreading after it was controlled. (antena3.com) Cartagena’s city government said the damage included structural harm to the restaurant building, but neither officials nor emergency services had publicly identified an origin point by Wednesday afternoon. (murciatoday.com) ### Why did the fire draw wider attention beyond La Manga? La Sexta and other Spanish outlets said the restaurant had recently appeared on television in Alberto Chicote’s program “Servicio Secreto.” Those reports helped push the fire beyond a local incident and into national coverage on Wednesday. (murciaeconomia.com) The Spanish Eye reported that the restaurant had undergone a makeover months earlier, while local and national outlets published video and images showing flames moving through the beachfront structure. Officials, however, limited their public statements to the emergency response, the absence of injuries and the fact that the cause remained under investigation. (lasexta.com) Cartagena city officials said on May 13 that the next formal step was the investigation into how the fire started at ZM Isla del Ciervo. The last official time point released on Wednesday was 10:04 a.m., when CEIS crews returned to their base in La Manga after the fire had been controlled and the medical unit had stood down. (cartagena.es) (thespanisheye.com)