Devastating fires
In Spain, 30,000 hectares burned in 24 hours
A record area of 373,000 hectares has burned since January, exceeding the sad balance of 2022. The end of the heat wave could relieve firefighters.
The flames have already ravaged more than 373,000 hectares since the start of the year in Spain.
IMAGO/Anadolu Agency
Fires ravaging the western half of Spain burned an additional 30,000 hectares in 24 hours, according to European satellite data Copernicus Published Tuesday, even if the end of the heat wave hitting the country feeds hope for improving the situation.
Some 373,000 hectares had burned Tuesday morning in Spain since the start of the year, 30,000 more than Monday, a figure in constant progression, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), which uses Copernicus data.
Since the start of the effis surveys in 2006, it is the worst year for Spain in terms of surface burned by the flames, beyond the previous record set in 2022 (306,000 hectares calcined).
The end of the heat wave gives hope for improving the situation.
IMAGO/Anadolu Agency
Thousands of people evacuated
The majority of this surface burned in the major fires that have affected the provinces of Zamora and Léon in Castile-et-León (northwest) for ten days, that of Oorense in Galicia (North West), and in the province of Cáceres in Estrémadure (West).
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Thousands of dozens of villages have been evacuated, dozens of roads are cut and rail traffic between Madrid and Galicia is interrupted.
The Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected Tuesday at midday in the affected areas in Zamora and Cáceres.
Even if the extinction of these fires will still take time, the end of the heat wave that ravaged Spain for 16 days on Monday, on Monday, offers hope for improving the situation.
The fire has ravaged a record area since the start of the year.
IMAGO/Europa Press
This meteorological change will result in a “reduction of 10 to 12 degrees of maximum temperatures, to which must also be added the increase in humidity indices,” said Nicanor Sen, government delegate (prefect) of Castille-et-León, on TVE public television.
This “facilitates and improves conditions” to “control these fires,” he added.
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