Spanish officials have confirmed that around 1,000 people have been evacuated from the rural Navalacruz area after blazing wildfires, fueled by strong winds and high heat, destroyed at least 12,000 hectares of land at the weekend.
Speaking on Monday, regional environment chief Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones warned that strong winds, high temperatures, and low humidity have fueled the spread of the inferno, but said firefighters are close to bringing the blaze under control.
If there is no change in the wind conditions, we should be able to stabilize the fire today.
Tremendo el incendio de la zona de Navalacruz, Ávila, visto desde Madrid… La sierra se desangra… Doloroso… pic.twitter.com/R6wZ76vWUY
#ifnavalacruz 17:46 Desde Burgohondo. Barrido desde Navalacruz a Navalmoral. Espero ayude pic.twitter.com/7TTkZwTE7g
The wildfire in the Navalacruz area, roughly 120km west of Madrid, started after a car caught fire on a road on Saturday, with more than eight villages evacuated as a result. More than 1,000 firefighters, 140 military personnel, helicopters and planes were deployed to combat the blaze.
Before firefighters could get the blaze under control, the flames spread, with the mayor of Solosancho, a town in the area, calling it a “very hard” time for residents.
“There have been moments of tension, panic, anguish, but we are in good hands,” the mayor, Jesus Martin, said at the weekend, while describing how the region’s “mountain range has been burned.”
? Un millar de evacuados y 10.000 hectáreas quemadas por el incendio de Navalacruz (Ávila) #IFNavalacruz#Ávila#UME#EjércitoTierra#FFAA◾️ Un millar de personas evacuadas y 10.000 hectáreas quemadas constituyen este domingo el trágico saldo del incendio pic.twitter.com/9yUnKEKjd6
#ifnavalacruz 14:00 en la unión de los términos municipales de Navandrinal, Navarredondilla y Navalacruz.#Ayuda@brifpuertopico@brif_iglesuela@AT_Brif@DGCyLpic.twitter.com/FbKikvVJNG
Desde mi balcón en Navalacruz a las 17:12#ifnavalacruzpic.twitter.com/tIaZ7o6exO
Officials have provided temporary housing for those displaced by the blaze, which has threatened forest, livestock, villages and towns alike as it spread and destroyed some 12,000 hectares of land.
The wildfires in Spain are the latest blazes to impact countries across Europe, with Greece, Italy and Turkey also suffering devastating fires. Elsewhere in the world, Algeria and Bolivia have seen major blazes in recent weeks that caused evacuations and destroyed extensive areas of farms and woodland.
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