Hundreds of firefighters and soldiers were battling a massive wildfire northeast of Madrid on Tuesday that has been raging since last week.
Authorities say the blaze that broke out Thursday in Guadalajara province, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Spanish capital, is one of the toughest yet to blaze and is believed to be the largest wildfire to hit the country this year.
What do we know about the fires north of Madrid?
“This is one of the most complex problems Spain has had to deal with in recent years,” Emiliano García-Page, regional president of Castilla-La Mancha, told reporters.
Garcia-Page said more than 600 firefighters and about 50 planes and helicopters had “practically stopped” the fire from spreading toward the provincial capital, Soria, but it was not yet under control.
“Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
The fire has forced about 1,200 people from their homes in the Castilla-La Mancha region, while at least 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land have burned, officials said.
The fire has been very difficult to control because the area is covered with bush and has been in severe drought conditions for a long time. Strong winds have also complicated the situation.
Risk of more fires ‘remains high’ in Spain
Spain recorded its third heatwave of the summer so far on Tuesday, with temperatures expected to rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) across much of the country, hampering firefighting efforts.
According to Spain’s national weather agency AEMET, the heat wave is expected to last only for about three days.
Spain is still grappling with the deadliest wildfire in modern times, which killed 13 people and destroyed 7,000 hectares of land in the southern Almeria province earlier this month.
Wildfires have destroyed more than 115,000 hectares of land in Spain this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
“We are going through particularly complex weeks, and the risk of fire remains very high,” government spokeswoman Alma Saez told a news conference.
Last year, EFFIS said more than 393,000 hectares of land were destroyed by wildfires, the most in Spain’s history.
France is also struggling with severe fire
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Tuesday that two firefighters died near an airport in Gironde, in southwestern France.
On Monday, firefighters battled a blaze at a Roma camp on the outskirts of Nantes, western France.
The fire, which started after a car caught fire, spread to nearby forests and a caravan of people living in the settlement, leading to the evacuation of about 200 people.
Most scientists say human-driven global warming is causing heatwaves to become longer, more intense and more frequent, leading to drier conditions that increase the likelihood of destructive wildfires.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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