Spain races to contain blazes before temperatures rise

Spain faces two crucial days to bring raging wildfires under control before weather conditions worsen, authorities said on Monday, as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on his citizens to “exercise extreme caution” ahead of a new heatwave.

Wildfires that broke out in forests around the Spanish capital at the height of the summer holidays have forced some 60,000 people to flee their homes, often with just minutes’ notice, leaving pets and medicine behind.

“You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend” against the fire, said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer who spoke to AFP on a road near Navaluenga, west of Madrid.

“There were some 48 homes here; they burned,” he added, surrounded by charred earth and trees blanketed with a persistent smell of smoke.

The fires devoured forests left tinder-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

Overnight, lower temperatures, weaker winds and higher air humidity helped make progress against the blazes west of the capital, the Madrid regional government said.

The flames have “slowed their advance”, it said, while urging residents to remain “extremely cautious”.

“The situation has improved slightly, but the fire is still active,” it said.

But with humidity levels set to drop and temperatures soar across Spain, hitting 40C in the centre and south according to meteorological agency AEMET, firefighters have only a small window of opportunity.

‘Extreme caution’

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters that Monday and Tuesday “are absolutely decisive days” to control the fires, before temperatures start rising again.

“The next two days will not bring the most favourable conditions, nor the ones we would have wanted, but they are two days in which we can take the initiative, make progress, and work towards controlling and containing the blaze.”

AEMET said that from Tuesday the fire risk would “surge to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country”.

“This situation will persist, or may even worsen, in the following days,” it added.

Reacting to the forecast, Sanchez said: “I ask for understanding and call on all citizens in all the country to exercise extreme caution and take every possible precaution.

“We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead, he warned.

‘Lost everything’

In Chapineria, west of Madrid, the flames had torn through dozens of vehicles at an industrial park, leaving only charred shells behind, AFP photographers saw.

Meanwhile, at a sports hall in Las Rozas de Madrid, just outside the capital, the displaced sprawled on camp beds, held their heads in their hands and comforted pets as they awaited news.

Maria Angeles Canete fought back tears as she looked around the desolation that used to be her campsite near Navaluenga.

“We lost everything,” she said, of the site that used to draw a wide range of international tourists. “We had this campsite, we had another one, and we’ve lost it all. We have nothing.”

Madrid regional authorities said they were planning to restore the bus service between Madrid and the Villamanta area close to the fires, and allow farmers to return to feed their animals.

Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

Sanchez directly blamed global warming on Monday, describing the fires as “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”.

“This is no longer an exception, this is a rule itself,” he added during a meeting in Madrid.

Sanchez is due to visit a fire-hit area in Valencia, in the east of the country where firefighters are battling a separate blaze and 15,000 more people have been evacuated.

The fires in the Iberian country have affected an area of 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) — nearly the size of New York City — according to the authorities.

Since the start of the year, fires in Spain have ravaged 150,000 hectares and killed 13 people, according to Sanchez.

Shelters in France overwhelmed

Shelters in France and Spain on Monday overflowed with exhausted locals and holidaymakers forced to flee blazes so massive some were forming their own mini weather systems, as authorities warned a new heatwave was set to descend on parts of the region.

The fires tearing through forests in southwest France, around the prized wine-making region of Bordeaux, and in central Spain around the capital Madrid have been some of the worst in decades and have hit at the height of the summer holiday season.

More than 325,000 people have fled their homes in the face of the blazes feeding on forests left super-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

France’s fire has caused a “pyrocumulonimbus” — a giant fire cloud that can create its own winds and packs lightning and sometimes tornadoes that can cause more blazes, according to France’s national firefighters federation, which said the phenomenon had never before been seen in the country.

“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario… at some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there,” said federation spokesman Eric Brocardi.

Thousands of firefighters, backed by specialised water-bombing aircraft, have been battling the blazes and the clouds of toxic smoke.

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a crisis cabinet meeting to discuss the emergency on Monday, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit a fire-hit area in Valencia, in the east of the country where firefighters are battling a new blaze.

‘Extremely intense’

Scientists say climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

In France, the prefect of the southwestern Gironde region, where the country’s fires are concentrated, urged tourists to stay away and seek “other destinations”.

“The wind is changing so much, it’s really the fire calling the shots,” a firefighter said.

The fire has ravaged 42,000 hectares in Gironde — an area seven times the size of Manhattan — since Wednesday.

Around 220,000 people have been evacuated in the region, with 45 campsites forced to shut, ruining the holiday plans of around 40,000 people. Another 30,000 people have been forced to flee fires in other regions in France.

The Gironde local authority said early on Monday that the fire had remained “broadly stable” overnight.

Garden hose in hand, Georges Clivaz sprayed water along a road leading to his property in Saint-Jean-d’Illac in Gironde as the blaze burned a few kilometres away.

“We’re doing this to slow down the fire’s advance; we want to save our homes,” he told AFP.

Although the village was evacuated on Friday, Clivaz said he and his family were trying to hold out.

“But the firefighters are telling us that in two or three hours the fire will be here.”

New heatwave

Weather forecasters warn another heatwave could hit France from Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40℃ in some areas.