A massive Spain wildfire near Madrid has forced about 700 residents to flee their homes after scorching around 13,000 hectares of land in Guadalajara province.
According to AFP, around 300 firefighters, backed by 26 water-dropping aircraft, continued battling the blaze on Sunday after it erupted on Thursday during an intense heatwave.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government was closely monitoring the situation and praised emergency workers for “working tirelessly” to protect lives and bring the wildfire under control.
Regional authorities described the blaze as “difficult” to contain because it is burning through the mountainous forests of the Sierra Norte Natural Park, a protected area that is home to endangered wildlife, including wolves, eagles and rare butterfly species.
The latest emergency comes just days after another wildfire broke out near Zaragoza in Spain’s Aragon region, forcing around 1,000 people to evacuate. Officials said improved weather conditions have helped slow the spread of that fire, which has now burned about 14,400 hectares.
Authorities said emergency services would decide when residents of the five evacuated villages could safely return home. No casualties have been reported from either wildfire.
Earlier this month, Spain experienced one of its deadliest wildfires in recent history when a blaze in the southern province of Almeria claimed 13 lives and destroyed approximately 7,000 hectares of land.
Spain has endured increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40°C. Scientists say human-driven climate change is making heatwaves longer and more intense, drying vegetation and increasing the risk of destructive wildfires.
