Spain scrambles to prevent fatalities as fierce blazes erupt close to the capital

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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Saturday firefighters were working to “save lives” in the wildfires raging west of Madrid, warning of a “complex” struggle with high winds expected.

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The fires in the parched countryside have forced 70,000 people to flee their homes, the government said, in what officials have called the region’s worst fire on record.

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“Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Sanchez told reporters in the village of Cenicientos in the fire zone.

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“We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be.”

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In the town of Brunete, local mayor Mar Nicolas told AFP she was “very worried for the residents who are suffering from these terrible fires”.

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“Every year there are fires, but this one has been tremendous,” she said. “It is a catastrophe.”

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Thick grey smoke filled the sky west of the capital and the smell of burning reached the streets of central Madrid in the morning, itching residents’ throats and forcing them to keep their windows closed. The health ministry on X advised people to avoid staying outside for long periods because of bad air quality.

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Evacuees from surrounding villages sheltered in sports halls around the capital.

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Jacqueline Villafranca, 38, from Peru, told AFP she was evacuated in about an hour on Friday evening from the village of Navalagamella.

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When the fire alerts sounded on telephones, “I thought everything was going to burn, the house and everything,” she said.

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She was brought by coach with her husband and two daughters, aged 16 and two, to the northern Madrid suburb of Alcobendas, where they sat dozing and eating snacks in a municipal gymnasium.

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“Yesterday was unbearable. My daughter came home from holiday camp and said: ‘Mum, I can’t open my eyes, my eyes are burning'” from the smoke, she said.

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“And then the alerts started to sound and I evacuated.”

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– ‘Opportunity’ to beat fire –

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Spain’s government delegate to Madrid Francisco Martin told journalists on Saturday another 25,000 people had been evacuated from villages near Madrid, bringing the total who have fled to 70,000, according to central government figures.

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Easing heat overnight offered a “window of opportunity this weekend to fight… this very serious fire”, Sanchez said.

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But Martin earlier warned that “erratic gusts” of wind were forecast.

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Two separate wildfires in the Madrid region combined on Friday to form one huge blaze, which threatened to merge with a third near Avila in the neighbouring Castilla y Leon region.

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The government delegation in Madrid said on X early Saturday that overnight conditions had “greatly aided the fight against the wildfires, which advanced little and decreased in intensity”.

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It listed at least 10 villages in the Madrid region that had been evacuated and three where residents had been ordered to stay at home.

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The Madrid regional government said on X that more than 2,000 people were being looked after in 14 emergency evacuation centres.

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In the town of El Escorial northwest of Madrid, the historic monastery was shrouded in smoke, an AFP reporter saw.

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So far this year fires have burned more than 168,000 hectares in Spain, according to the EU’s European Forest Fire Information System.

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Spain recorded its worst wildfire season in recent history in 2025, when more than 393,000 hectares were destroyed, EFFIS said.

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