Firefighters are fighting forest fires in several areas in Spain. Months of drought and heat attributed to climate change fuel new fires across the country.
The risk of wildfires remains “extremely high” in parts of Andalusia, Aragon, and Catalonia, EU climate service Copernicus warned. 2022 is already the most devastating year of wildfires for Spain.
A fire 60 kilometers northeast of Alicante has destroyed about 3,500 hectares of forest since Saturday, TV channel RTVE reported. About 1,000 people in the area surrounding the town of Pego had to evacuate their homes as a precaution. There were two smaller forest fires in the Valencia region.
Another large forest fire raged around the town of Añón de Moncayo, about 70 kilometers west of Zaragoza. About 1,500 people were evacuated there over the weekend. The fire has so far destroyed 8,000 hectares and is not yet under control.
Near Murcia in the southeast, fire teams were able to contain a fire started by a lightning strike. Unfortunately, this also applies to Spain’s most devastating forest fire since the beginning of this year near Zamora near the border with Portugal.
Since July 17, 31,500 hectares of forest and undergrowth have been burned there. The situation was brought under control over the weekend.