Spain faces decisive wildfire fight after 60,000 flee before new heatwave

Spain has two crucial days to contain major wildfires before a new heatwave makes firefighting more difficult, authorities said Monday, after about 60,000 people were forced to flee fires around Madrid.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely decisive days” to control the fires before temperatures rise again. He said crews had a short window to make progress before conditions worsened.

Spain’s AEMET weather agency officially declared that the fourth heatwave of the summer would begin on Tuesday and last until at least Sunday. It forecast temperatures of 42C in the northeast and 39C in central Spain, with high temperatures, gusty southerly winds and widespread low humidity pushing wildfire danger to extreme levels.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged people across Spain to exercise extreme caution and take every possible precaution. “We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead, he said.

The Madrid regional government said lower temperatures, weaker winds and higher humidity overnight had helped crews west of the capital. “The situation has improved slightly, but the fire is still active,” it said.

The fires broke out in forests around Madrid during the summer holiday period, forcing many people to leave with little notice. Near Navaluenga, west of Madrid, residents and volunteers described burned homes and damaged campsites. In Chapineria, flames tore through dozens of vehicles at an industrial park. At a sports hall in Las Rozas de Madrid, displaced people waited for news with their pets.

Sanchez was due to visit a fire-hit area in Valencia, where firefighters were battling a separate blaze and 15,000 more people had been evacuated.

Authorities said fires in Spain had affected 77,000 hectares. Sanchez said fires across Spain had burned 150,000 hectares and killed 13 people since the start of the year. He linked the fires to global warming, calling them “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”. Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense.