ONE of two devastating wildfires burning near Madrid since last week has become the largest in Spain’s recorded history, officials said.
Nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors as one blaze tore through an unprecedented 50,000 hectares of farmland and forest in Avila province, southwest of the Spanish capital.
A separate wildfire nearby has scorched around 27,000 hectares around San Martin de Valdeiglesias, in the southwest of the Madrid region, after three fire fronts merged into one late on Friday.
The simultaneous blazes prompted authorities to declare a national emergency across the provinces of Madrid, Avila and Toledo, with officials describing the crisis as ‘the worst fire in the region’s history.’
Hundreds of firefighters and more than 40 aircraft, including several sent by Italy, Greece and Turkey after Spain requested international assistance, have been battling the flames for five consecutive days.
Responders managed to establish a perimeter around the blazes on Sunday afternoon, although officials warned on Monday that strong winds could ‘make it harder to bring the fires under control.’
According to the EU’s fire monitoring system, Copernicus, Spain has lost more than 176,000 hectares of land to a record-breaking 357 wildfires this year.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly warned that the alarming trend is linked to the worsening climate emergency, calling on all political parties to ‘come together in the fight against climate change.’
He wrote on X on Monday: “Spain urgently needs solutions that will make the country safer, more resilient and better prepared for future challenges.
“A state pact on the climate emergency is a national priority that concerns us all.
“This is not a battle that any government can win alone. It will only be won by a united country that understands what is at stake and is determined to protect its land, its future and the lives of its people.”
Controversy has also erupted around Madrid regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso after a group of Madrid firefighters said they warned the regional government as early as April that wildfire prevention work had been cut by around 50%.
According to a report by Spanish outlet elDiario.es, crews responsible for clearing vegetation and reducing combustible material were operating with five workers instead of the usual nine, severely limiting the amount of preventive work they could carry out.
They repeatedly warned that understaffing meant large areas of forest were not being cleared before the summer fire season.
The firefighters argue that, while prevention alone would not have stopped the current wildfires, better fuel management could have reduced their intensity and slowed their spread.
Ayuso had previously said the devastating fires were the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of factors, including strong winds and low humidity.
Spain’s minister for the ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, warned that a new heatwave beginning on Tuesday would leave much of the country at a ‘very high’ risk of new wildfires.
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