Spain wildfires: evacuation orders lifted for 13 towns

Spain ended evacuation orders for 13 municipalities in two wildfire-hit areas from 5:00 pm on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, allowing residents to begin returning home.

The ministry did not say how many residents were covered by the decision.

At a Civil Guard checkpoint near Chapineria and Navas del Rey, two villages that had been fully evacuated several days earlier, an AFP reporter saw a queue of more than 20 vehicles form soon after authorities announced the measure.

Spain's government declared a national emergency last week over wildfires that have forced about 60,000 people to flee their homes and burned 77,000 hectares, or 190,000 acres.

Authorities reported some encouraging developments, but fires remained uncontrolled in parts of central and eastern Spain.

"We are at the stage of containing the fire," Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said at the command centre in Navalcarnero. He said the priority was to consolidate the fire response and reach stabilisation, while warning that rising temperatures were expected to create difficult weather conditions.

In the eastern Castellon area, the municipality of Vall d'Uixo lifted a confinement order for residents on Tuesday morning.