Spain battles 14 major fires with ‘unfavourable conditions’ set to fuel more
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Local residents watching as a wildfire approaches the vicinity of Villanueva de la Sierra, Zamora, Spain on Aug 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MADRID – Spain battled 14 major fires on Aug 15 as the authorities warned of unfavourable conditions in fighting blazes that have already killed seven and burned an area the size of London.
A 12-day heatwave and southerly winds meant firefighters were facing another challenging day in one of the worst summers for fires in the past 20 years, said Ms Virginia Barcones, director-general of emergency services.
“In the western part of the country, the situation is extremely worrying,” she said on Spanish TV broadcaster RTVE.
In Galicia, several fronts had joined together to form an even bigger blaze, forcing the closure of highways and rail services to the region.
The fires in Ourense province in Galicia spread to the neighbouring province of Zamora. While many people were evacuated, some stayed behind to protect their homes.
“In the village, some people have tractors, and they have made a firewall in a flat area with fewer hills,” said 52-year-old teacher Loli Baz in the village of Villanueva de la Sierra.
“We are waiting for the fire to come down to try and stop it, so it does not get to the houses in the village,” the teacher added.
Firefighters have been battling to put out wildfires across southern Europe, with the flames stoked by the extended heatwave gripping the region.
The national weather agency Aemet warned of extreme fire risk in the north and west of the country, as temperatures expected to reach as high as 40 deg C on the north coast were set to add fuel to the flames.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on social media platform X, wrote: “Today will be another very difficult day, with an extreme risk of new fires.”
Fires spreading quickly
Near Molezuelas de la Carballeda in the Castile and Leon region, one of the largest fires in Spain’s history had not advanced since Aug 14, said Mr Angel Sanchez, head of the region’s forest fire service.
“We will continue working to stabilise it,” he said.
The conditions are causing fires to spread at speeds where firefighters can quickly lose control.
The Molezuelas fire at one stage was propagating at a rate of 4,000ha per hour, the national government representative for the Castile and Leon region, Mr Eduardo Diego, told reporters, according to Europa Press.
A fire near Badajoz in the Extremadura region burned 2,500ha in a few hours before being brought under control, Mr Jose Luis Quintana, the national government representative for the region, told RTVE.
“It was very fast with enormous growth, but it has been possible to tackle it,” he said.
Avincis, the largest operator of emergency aerial services in Spain and Europe, said it registered a 50 per cent increase from 2024 in flight hours dedicated to firefighting operations in Spain and Portugal so far this season.
In Oimbra, Ourense, where three firefighters were seriously injured, a man was arrested for causing a fire by using his tractor when it was prohibited, the police said.
Two people were arrested in Costa da Morte in Galicia for provoking fires by illegally burning copper cables to extract the metal and sell it, according to the Interior Ministry.
Wildfires in 2025 have so far burned more than 157,000ha, almost double the annual average since 2006, according to the European Union’s Forest Fire Information Service. REUTERS
