Cooler temperatures and favorable winds are helping firefighters battle an 11-day-old blaze raging on the Canary Island of La Gomera, Spanish authorities said Wednesday.

The forest fire is among the worst to affect Spain in 2012, during which wildfires have caused triple the damage of the previous year. Critics say economic crisis cutbacks are hampering efforts to deal with the blazes.

The Canary Islands regional government said Wednesday that the fire on the island, which lies off the North African coast, was still out of control. But it said firefighters were making greater progress because of a sudden drop in summer temperatures and a change in wind direction that had contained the fire's spread.

The fire has so far burned just over 30 square kilometers (11. sq. miles), in and around the island's central Garajonay National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Canary Islands government has long demanded its firefighting equipment be boosted by the central government.