SPAIN: It Was Like Napalm

A gas-truck explosion devastates a seaside campsite

It was approaching midafternoon, and a sparkling, early-summer Spanish sun still shone high over the tiny Mediterranean resort of San Carlos de la Rapita. Most of the 600 French, West German and Belgian tourists at Los Alfaques (the Sandbars) campsite were eating a leisurely sitdown lunch in front of their tents and trailers or at picnic tables under the shade of palm and cypress trees. Others were dozing off for a vacation siesta. Groups of children romped among the sunbathers basking on the narrow beach.

At...

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