Firefighters hopeful that huge Castellón wildfire is being brought under control

Firefighters were hopeful On Thursday this week that a large forest fire in Castellón province, in the Valencia region, that had been raging for almost a week, was being brought under control.

The drought and very warm temperatures across Spain in the last week has meant the wildfire season has started much earlier than usual.

By Wednesday this week, some 4,700 hectares of land inland of Castellón were reported as destroyed over an area with a perimeter of 50 km. More than 100 people were still evacuated from their homes.

The Valencia regional government said that the emergency services were taking advantage of a lull in high winds and temperatures on Wednesday to control the outer area of the fire. On Thursday weather conditions were expected to worsen with temperatures of 30 degrees and dry winds of up to 70 km/h. By Friday, the weather was expected to be more favourable again for controlling the remaining flames.

The fire was first reported on 24 March around the hillside village of Villanueva de Viver, very close to the border of the Valencia region with Aragón, which was also affected.