The fire has devoured an area larger than two Londons

Forest fires

Forest fires larger than two Londons

Christina Nordh

Updated 11.05 | Published 07.27

The extreme heat is starting to loosen its grip on Spain.

But not the forest fires.

The area burned is now at least twice the size of London.

 

The fires have destroyed up to 382,000 hectares. Photo: Lalo R. Villar / AP

The forest fires in Spain are the worst since 1994. They have destroyed up to 382,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. 

That's the equivalent of an unimaginable 696,000 football pitches.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Jarilla in western Spain on Tuesday.

– Science and common sense tell us that the climate is changing, that the climate crisis has become more frequent – ​​and is having an ever-increasing impact, he said during the visit, according to El País. 

 

Photo: Pablo Garcia / AP

Surrounded by the fire

Sánchez warned that “difficult hours remain” ahead. Firefighters have been working hard for 16 days against the inferno of fires that have destroyed villages, communications and led to forced evacuations across the country.

One of the victims is Raúl Espadas and his son in Boca Huérgano in northwestern Spain. They were surrounded by the forest fire when they went to collect their livestock, 150 cows, in the Lechada Valley.

– These were temperatures I couldn’t even imagine. We couldn’t go in any direction, he told El Mundo.

Mayor Óscar Fernández saw lightning strike one of the peaks near Los Espejos de la Reina, in the Montaña de Riaño y Mampodre nature reserve.

– At first, the lightning strike didn’t seem like anything special, but the temperature rose so much that the fire, along with the wind, took off. The fire spread 13 kilometers in just four hours, he says.

“The ground is drier”

He believes it’s about climate change.

– Here you always have to bring a down jacket to summer parties, because at night it’s really cold – except for the last two or three years, when you wear short sleeves. Whether it’s a climate cycle or not, I can’t say. But that the temperature has changed, that the ground is drier and burns more easily – that’s for sure.

In addition to Jarilla, the fires have affected Galicia, Castile, León and Extremadura, among other places.

Today, the most serious fires are in Fasgar, Anllares del Sil, Llamas de la Cabrera, Barniedo de la Reina, Gestoso and Igüeña in León, Porto in Zamora and Cardaño de Arriba in Palencia.

 

At least four people have died in the forest fires. Photo: Pablo Garcia / AP

The firefighters are now helped by falling temperatures.

More than 1,100 people have died during the heat wave of the past two weeks, according to official figures from the Carlos III Health Institute, writes the  Daily Mail.

Heating up twice as fast

According to experts, the deaths can be linked to the heat wave, in some places the temperature rose to over 45 degrees.

Several of the fires are suspected of being started by humans. Police have arrested 23 people suspected of arson, and another 89 people are being investigated, writes the AP news agency.

At least four people have died in the forest fires.

According to the EU's climate service Copernicus, Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s.

According to researchers, climate change has dramatically increased the frequency and intensity of heat and drought in parts of Europe, making our part of the world more vulnerable to forest fires.