BARCELONA (Reuters) -A forest fire in the Spanish island of La Palma has forced the evacuation of at least 500 people, authorities said on Saturday, in the first natural crisis on the island since a volcanic eruption on 2021.

The fire started in the early hours of Saturday morning in El Pinar de Puntagorda, a wooded area at the north of the island in the Canaries, as many European cities brace for extreme heat in the coming week.

Vicente Rodriguez, the mayor of Puntagorda, told Spanish television RTVE that the area has suffered from a lack of rain, like much of drought-hit Spain, and temperatures reached 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last week.

At least 11 houses were destroyed as the fire advanced, said Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands.

"The number of people who need to be evacuated could reach 1,000. It depends on whether we can bring these strong winds under control," Clavijo told reporters in La Palma.

About 140 hectares (346 acres) of land had been destroyed by the fire, he added.

The Spanish army deployed 150 of its firefighters to help local crews battle the blaze and other firefighters are arriving from the neighbouring island of Tenerife, Clavijo said.

Four helicopters and four firefighting units on the ground were battling to bring the fire under control in the island, which forms part of a Spanish archipelago off the coast of western Africa.

In September 2021, more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed and many thousands of people were forced to leave their homes when lava began pouring out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

The eruption continued for three months and ash from the lava coated the surrounding area with a sooty blanket of thick black dust.

(Reporting by Graham Keeley; editing by Clelia Oziel and Christina Fincher)