MADRID - The Spanish authorities said on Saturday that firefighters and soldiers were managing to contain a blaze in the country’s west that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages.

“Today, we’re hoping to strike a blow against this fire… It’s a very intense task,” said civil protection coordinator Nieves Villar, adding that conditions were improving as the high wind speeds of recent days dropped back.

Despite that improvement, she said, the authorities were “still far from saying this fire is under control”, with winds expected to calm only on Sunday, when there is the possibility of light rain.

The local authorities have blamed arson for the wildfire that broke out on Wednesday near the village of Pinofranqueado in the sparsely populated region of Extremadura bordering Portugal.

The flames have ravaged about 3,500ha of forest and scrubland and forced the evacuation of around 700 people from several villages, the regional government said.

Data from Europe’s Copernicus satellite system showed as much as 12,000ha had been affected by the blaze across the affected province of Caceres.

Ms Villar said 600 firefighters had been deployed overall, including Portuguese colleagues.

Backing them are 14 water-bombing aircraft, the regional Agriculture Ministry said.

Heatwave and drought

Regional government leader Guillermo Fernandez Vara lashed out on Friday against those who had set the fires that caused “damage that takes decades to recover, if they ever recover”.

The strong winds of up to 60kmh had made controlling the flames “extremely difficult”, he added.

But he expressed hope on Saturday evening that more clement weather conditions in the hours ahead would make it easier to douse the fire.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday cancelled his participation in a rally in Extremadura, ahead of regional elections on May 28, because of the blaze.

Spain, which is experiencing long-term drought after three years of below-average rainfall, has already seen multiple wildfires in 2023.

The drought was made worse by an unusually early heatwave at the end of April that brought exceptionally high temperatures normally seen only in summer. Temperatures hit 38.8 deg C in the southern city of Granada on April 27, the highest recorded in mainland Spain during that month.

In 2022, a particularly bad year for wildfires in Europe, Spain was the continent’s worst-hit country.

Nearly 500 blazes destroyed more than 300,000ha, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events, including heatwaves and droughts, more frequent and more intense. They increase the risk of fires, which emit climate-heating greenhouse gases. AFP