More than 70,000 people have been forced from their homes as wildfires tear through the Spanish countryside, with Madrid’s regional leader describing the crisis as “the biggest natural catastrophe in the history of Spain”.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the Madrid regional president, visited affected areas on Monday alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, calling the situation “a hell of a situation”. Four municipalities remain under lockdown and a further 12 have been evacuated, Ayuso confirmed. In the Madrid region alone, 56,500 people have fled their homes since the fires broke out last week, while another 27,797 have been ordered to stay indoors. Further evacuations have taken place in Ávila, Toledo and Valencia.
“More than 70,000 evacuated as Madrid wildfires declared 'biggest natural catastrophe' in Spain's history.”
The fires are being fuelled by extreme heat. Spain’s state meteorological agency Aemet has warned that “the fire danger level will continue to rise to extreme levels, hindering firefighting efforts” as a new heatwave is expected from Wednesday. Temperatures could approach 40C in some regions and the heatwave is forecast to last at least until Sunday.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Spain’s La 1 TV channel that overnight firefighting efforts had made “relatively positive progress”. “This morning, we are very satisfied with the work done. We are going to consolidate the work that has been done,” he said. He insisted “we must be positive; we have the emergency under control” but conceded that “weather conditions are not helping us at all”.
Sánchez spoke on Tuesday of “highly challenging hours and days ahead” but said light was beginning to appear “at the end of the tunnel”. He announced that the affected areas had been declared “disaster zones”. In a briefing in Madrid, he said: “The climate emergency is worsening year after year, and we are required to be united to fight against fire, as well as in prevention and reconstruction. Therefore, I make an explicit request, a single appeal to all regional governments: Climate denial is the worst fuel for the fight against the climate emergency.”
Ayuso, who earlier described the flames as turning the area into a “war zone”, wrote on X that the situation was now “improving little by little” and some residents might soon be allowed to return home. But with a heatwave bearing down and Aemet warning of extreme fire danger, the threat is far from over.