Spanish authorities put number of active forest fires across the country with a high risk level at 16
A fire that started in the Galician town of A Mezquita spread to Castile and León on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of 1,700 people
The wave of wildfires continues to rage in Spain. Over the past week, 111,916 hectares have burned in 38 fires, according to estimates from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has recorded 16 major fires with a high level of risk currently active in Spain, according to data from the National Emergency Monitoring and Coordination Center as of Friday morning. Four of these outbreaks are located in Galicia (A Mezquita, Chandrexa de Queixa, Maceda-Santiso and Oimbra, all in the province of Ourense), five in Castile and León (Gallegos del Río and Molezuelas de la Carballeda-Castrocalbón, in Zamora; Yeres-Puente de Domingo Flórez and Orallo-Villablino, in León; and in La Alberca, in the province of Salamanca), two in Extremadura (in Jarilla, Cáceres and in Llerena, Badajoz), one in Cangas del Narcea (Asturias) and another in Teresa de Cofrentes, in the province of Valencia.
The fire that started in the town of A Mezquita (Ourense) and spread to the province of Zamora on Thursday remains out of control. During the night, firefighters focused on saving some threatened homes in the local municipalities, where more than 1,700 people were evacuated. For now, according to sources involved in the operation, the fire has not reached any residential areas, but remains “out of control,” with many outbreaks in the province of Ourense and two fronts advancing through the Hermisende and Pías valleys in the Alta Sanabria region of Zamora.
The situation is improving at the Molezuelas de la Carballeda fire in Zamora, which is expected to be the most serious fire ever recorded in Spain, after the flames razed around 31,500 hectares. The regional technical director of firefighting, Ángel Sánchez, has indicated that the progress of the fire during Thursday night was satisfactory, since these reactivations have been controlled and the area affected by the fire has not increased. In the coming hours, work will focus on stabilizing the fire with both ground and aerial resources that will discharge water to cool the area while experts monitor for possible reactivations. The fire, which remains active and at level 2 of potential severity in the Castile and León extinction plan, started on Sunday. Two volunteers who were helping to extinguish the flames died battling this fire.
Miguel Ángel Luengo, mayor of La Alberca, Salamanca, complained on the Cadena SER radio network that the fire affecting his town has spread because, after it had been extinguished Tuesday, there were no fire crews on hand from Wednesday to Thursday so the unsupervised blaze reignited. He confirmed that on Friday morning, after a night in which firefighting personnel were present, the situation improved and the fire “had decreased in intensity.”
The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has deployed 1,300 personnel and 440 vehicles to 12 active forest fires in Spain. Nine of them are in the northwest, at the fires in Cangas del Narcea (Asturias), Yeres (León), Molezuelas y Puercas (Zamora), Requeixo-Chandrexa de Queixa, Oimbra, A Mezquita, Larouco, and Maceda (Ourense). They are also present in Extremadura, where they are responding to the Jarilla forest fire (Cáceres) and the Llerena forest fire (Badajoz). They are also present in Valencia, where they are responding to the Teresa de Cofrentes fire.
Rail and road transport cut off
Rail services between Madrid and Galicia remain suspended “until further notice” due to the ongoing forest fires affecting various parts of Galicia and Castile and León, according to a joint statement issued by the state-owned Adif railway infrastructure company and the rail operator Renfe on Thursday. “With the safety of passengers as a priority, as well as that of the emergency services working to extinguish the fires, Adif will maintain the suspension of rail service until the management of the fires burning mainly in Zamora and Ourense authorizes the passage of trains with full safety guarantees,” the statement, released late Thursday afternoon, stated.
To ensure that those scheduled to travel by train on the route between Madrid and Galicia could reach their destination, 65 buses were chartered Thursday, covering the section between Zamora, Puebla de Sanabria, and Ourense. Renfe and Adif also reported that hotel rooms, food and drink kits at train stations, and free ticket cancellations and exchanges have been provided to affected passengers.
The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) reported that 11 roads across the Spanish road network were closed to traffic on Friday morning due to the fires.
The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has warned that the risk of fires is “very high or extreme” and will remain so in most of Spain until Monday due to the heat wave. Aemet forecasts “significantly high temperatures in most of the Iberian Peninsula,” with rising highs in the northern half of the country. Temperatures will exceed 35 degrees Celsius in most of the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands, and could reach 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Extremadura and Andalusia. Regarding winds, the agency forecasts generally light winds with intervals of moderate winds in the west of the country.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition