a great uncontrolled forest fire forced this Friday to evacuate or confine more than 40,000 people from numerous towns in Madrid, in Spain, while the fire also affected other 10,000 people in the bordering province of Ávila due to a similar incident; Altogether, the flames destroyed an upper surface to 18,000 hectares.
As reported by the news agency EFE, The situation is so critical that it led the central government to declare a national emergency and ask for European help.
In the southwest of Madrid, authorities reported that the number of people evacuated and confined could increase if the fire, which destroyed more than 12,000 hectares, keep moving forward.
Meanwhile, the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, stated that 20,000 people They left their homes due to evacuation.
The weather forecasts indicate, however, less wind and heat during the next few hours, which could allow ground work against the fire.
The fire, which originated in Villa del Prado and San Martín de Valdeiglesias, advances towards the north driven by the strong gusts of windso the authorities sent a cell phone alert to the population of several municipalities to proceed with the mandatory eviction.
The main obstacle is, precisely, the wind, with peaks of up to 60 kilometers per hour, so that the embers travel great distances, jump over containment lines and catch fire in other places.
One arrested for the Ávila fire
The security forces arrested one person and are investigating another as allegedly responsible for the Ávila fire, which consumed at least 6,000 hectares, due to serious recklessness committed with the use of heavy machinery, an activity that the law totally prohibited.
An abrupt relief, a very dense tree mass and adverse atmospheric conditions of a wind of 50 kilometers per hour and high temperatures prevent control the fire in this province, where several roads are closed.
So far, the fires in Spain have consumed a area greater than 114,000 hectares this year, according to the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, five times more than in the same period of 2025.
Another calculation method, such as the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), from the Copernicus service, places at 133,323 hectares charred since January in Spain.
The last few weeks were especially serious in the province of Almería (southeast), where 13 people died and 7,000 hectares burned.
