MADRID (AFP) - Some 230 firefighters were dispatched to battle around 100 wildfires which broke out in north-west Spain on Saturday (Dec 19) night, emergency services told AFP, but there were no reports of casualties.

"Around 100 fires are currently blazing," a spokeswoman for fire fighters in the Asturias region said.

"On the ground we have 230 firefighters" as well as officers from the civil guard, other volunteers and officials, she added.

Five homes were affected by forest fires in the north-west of the region and a section of motorway was closed off due to fumes, according to an early statement from the emergency services.

"Weather conditions, with higher temperatures and strong gusts of wind, are severely hampering efforts to extinguish these fires," it said.

Wildfires destroyed more than 54,000ha of agricultural and forest land in Spain this year, exceeding the area burned over the last two years combined, the agriculture ministry said after major fires broke out in the summer.