Spain fire rages on and forces further evacuations in Zamora despite stabilisation in Madrid

Late on Wednesday afternoon, another fierce fire forced the evacuation of residents from eleven municipalities in Zamora, in the north of Castilla y León. Around 1,000 people saw how the stories they had been hearing in the media about the now "stabilised" fires in Madrid suddenly became their own.

At 5.30pm, the emergency military unit (UME) left the base in León to join the firefighting efforts in the town of Fermoselle, in Zamora.

The fire danger level has been declared serious. The flames and their spread exceed the capacity of the region's resources, prompting assistance from extraordinary state resources.

Just a week after several outbreaks merged in Madrid and Ávila, the fire in Zamora strongly resembles the danger.

The advance of the flames, against a backdrop of adverse weather conditions such as the current heatwave and gusts of wind, urgently required a greater deployment of resources and posed a risk to nearby towns due to the speed at which the fire was spreading.

Unsurprisingly, the fire was upgraded to danger level 1 only 30 minutes after it was first reported, at 1.02pm. At 2pm, it had already reached level 2.

As Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has repeatedly stated throughout the management of this crisis, "the priority is people's safety". For this reason, civil protection issued the evacuation order.

It first impacted seven towns in Zamora. Two hours later, another four joined the list. Residents of Fermoselle, where the source of the fire was identified, were ordered to remain in their homes.

These extraordinary security measures impacted around 1,000 people on Wednesday night, many of them now taking shelter in sports centres.

While the police were assisting the local population, Grande-Marlaska acknowledged "the concern" surrounding this new outbreak from the command centre in Navalcarnero, where he provided a late-evening update on the situation.

He also brought good news regarding the fires in Ávila and Madrid. For the moment, there are no conditions, he said, that would give cause for pessimism.

"More than 48 hours have passed without the fires' perimeter advancing and the team of experts involved have enabled us to declare the situation technically stabilised," he stated.

The provisional total now stands at over 70,000 hectares burnt. That is 10,000 hectares more than the total area of the city of Madrid.

The government's representative in Madrid, Francisco Martín Aguirre, announced the lifting of all lockdown and evacuation measures, both in his region and in Ávila.

However, five residential areas between Pelayos de la Presa and San Martín de Valdeiglesias remain evacuated and will have to wait for the situation to improve. In total, 34,000 people returned to their homes between Tuesday and Wednesday and 20,000 were no longer subject to lockdown measures.

"We must thank the public for their exemplary behaviour during this fourth phase of easing restrictions, which is proceeding without incidents," Martín Aguirre said.

He also extended his support to the residents of the El Encinar de Alberche residential area, which has suffered very significant damage.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also visited the command centre. He said he felt "deep gratitude" towards the local population and the emergency services for the work they had carried out.

However, he urged people to continue exercisisng "caution" due to the ongoing heatwave and the gusts of wind. The Aemet state meteorological agency added to these challenges the possibility that the southerly winds blowing across half the country might be accompanied by a dust haze.

The impact of the weather on the firefighting efforts remains to be seen today.

Ávila and the villages of the Iruelas Valley breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday. Nicanor Sen, the government delegate in Castilla y León, announced in the morning that they were lifting the confinement and evacuation measures for the last eight municipalities awaiting a return to normalcy.

El Tiemblo and the La Atalaya residential area, which had been surrounded by flames, were among them. The landscape has turned black, which was the main concern of the local residents, who are heavily dependent on rural tourism.

Many homes, however, remain standing. One could say miraculously, because the flames came right up to the doorstep, but it was more due to the tireless efforts of the firefighters.

The historic chestnut grove of El Tiemblo and its more than 500-year-old specimen known locally as El Abuelo (The Grandfather), also displayed its natural colours in contrast to the surrounding landscape. The mayor had specifically asked firefighters to save it from the flames, which they were able to do.

Access the broad Spain national news archive