The fire, which has devastated about 12,000 hectares in Extremadura in western Spain since Thursday, has stabilized this Saturday and some of the 700 evacuated residents will now be able to return to their homes, regional authorities said.
The region’s forest fire prevention and control service has “stated that the fire in Las Hurdes has stabilized,” the government of the Spanish region, where Portuguese firefighters have also been dispatched, said.
“The forest fire situation in Pinofranceado is better than yesterday and the meteorological evolution can help in the coming hours,” added the president of the region, Guillermo Fernandez Vara, on social media.
Nearly 12,000 hectares were burned, according to data received by the European Copernicus satellite, which exceeds the regional authorities’ estimate of 8,500 hectares.
In the morning, civil protection coordinator Nieves Villar expressed optimism at a press conference, noting that there was little wind in the area and that many people and resources had been mobilized to contain the fire.
Portuguese firefighters joined their Spanish counterparts, the coordinator explained, stressing that there were “over 600” participants.
Although summer, the period when wildfires are most likely, has not yet arrived, Spain has already suffered from several, being the most affected country in Europe in 2022, with almost 500 fires that covered more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Information System on forest fires (EFFIS).
As a European country at the forefront of climate change, Spain has been experiencing increased heatwaves for several years, with rainfall increasingly scarce and irregular.
This year’s first quarter was the “driest” since records were set in 1961, according to the National Weather Agency.
The marked lack of precipitation was joined by a very early wave of temperature extremes at the end of April, which reached an absolute record for that month on the Spanish mainland of 38.8ºC, more typical of summer months such as July or August.