Heat wave: violent fires in Spain, tens of thousands of hectares have already gone up in smoke

Spain has been facing forest fires of worrying magnitude since Wednesday. 11,000 hectares, mainly pine forests and scrubland, have gone up in smoke since Wednesday in the Sierra de la Culebra, in the province of Zamora (autonomous community of Castile and Leon, in the west of the country). In total, nearly 1,700 inhabitants of the 13 municipalities had to be evacuated in the face of the advance of the flames, reports Vanguardia. The fire broke out last Wednesday evening, when a dry storm, combined with strong winds in the Sierra de la Culebra, caused eleven fires to start in the area. The heat wave that Spain has been experiencing since the middle of last week (and which has had an impact on France since Thursday) with temperatures well above 40°C, has favored the appearance of these fires in the country where thousands of hectares went up in smoke. Thus in Toledo (center), the fire has destroyed 900 hectares since Friday. Blazes in Catalonia Catalonia is the prey of many outbreaks of fire. The most important is that of Artesa de Segre (province of Lérida) which has already covered nearly 1,600 hectares and is still out of control despite the efforts of the bombers, the Catalan firefighters. In total, the bombers intervened on a dozen fires in a few hours, two of which are still active this Saturday, that of Artesa de Segre and another in Coll de Nargó, also in the province of Lérida. The fires in Castellar de la Ribera, Lladurs, Sallent, Peramola and Cabó have stabilized. As for the fires at La Riba and Corbera d’Ebre, they are under control. Without counting that of Artesa de Segre, these disasters destroyed nearly 2,000 hectares of vegetation.