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At least 19,000 people in the Madrid region have been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors due to wildfires that have become the worst in the region’s history, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Friday.
The fires in the densely populated area around the Spanish capital have burned around 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres), Ayuso told reporters.
She said that while an area of this size being burnt in other, more rural regions “would not be considered so significant”, in Madrid “with such a high concentration of homes and people, it is a catastrophe”.
Around 100 people have been treated for minor cases, mainly smoke inhalation or anxiety attacks, while at least 43 homes have been destroyed, Ayuso said.
“The situation is completely unusual and catastrophic,” she said, adding that the priority was “to save lives”.
Firefighters raced Friday to prevent two major wildfires from merging west of Madrid, where some residents awoke to the smell of smoke drifting in from blazes burning out of control near the Spanish capital.
Strong winds were expected to hamper efforts to contain the blazes, which authorities said were the worst in the region’s history and had forced the evacuation and confinement of 19,000 people so far.
In Navas del Rey, a town about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Madrid, smoke blanketed the sky and ash covered the landscape, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
“The smoke was incredibly thick. You couldn’t breathe,” Jose Cobos, who fled his home with his wife and three dogs, told private broadcaster Antena 3.
Only emergency vehicles were allowed on roads near the blaze, while police set up checkpoints to prevent unauthorised access.
The main priority for firefighters is to prevent the “convergence” of the blazes, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters Friday during a visit to a command centre in Cenicientos village.
Authorities were facing an “unfavourable situation” due to strong winds, low humidity, and high temperatures, he added.
Two of three wildfires burning west of Madrid are “on the verge of merging” into a single blaze, the regional government’s representative in Madrid, Francisco Martin, said.
– Evacuations –
Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s emergency management chief, said weather conditions were “expected to improve” overnight, with cooler temperatures and higher humidity forecast for Saturday.
Spain’s government declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and neighbouring Avila province late Thursday, allowing additional resources to be deployed more quickly and placing the Military Emergency Unit (UME) in charge of coordinating the response.
Around 10,000 people have been ordered to evacuate in the Madrid region, while several municipalities remained under confinement orders on Friday.
More than 430 elderly people and people with disabilities from five care homes were among the evacuated, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.
Television images showed Guardia Civil police officers wearing face masks helping elderly residents in wheelchairs board buses as care homes were evacuated.
The largest evacuation operation took place in San Mart¡n de Valdeiglesias, with most of the 178 residents at the private Lopez Rumayor care home evacuated to the municipal sports hall.