The fire in the Madrid region is “at its strongest”, said Carlos Novillo, of the regional government of Madrid, on Friday July 24, during a press briefing at the command post for extinguishing operations, deeming it “impossible” to put out the fire.
“At the moment it is obvious that the fire is at its strongest, it is impossible to put out,” he said. He added that the fire that started in the province of Ávila was heading further “north than expected”, giving hope that it would not join the fire raging in the neighboring Madrid region.
A total of 40,000 people have already been evacuated or confined in the Madrid region because of the gigantic fire raging there, announced the regional prefect, Francisco Martín Aguirre. Of this total, some 20,000 people were evacuated.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will travel on Saturday at 10:00 (08:00) GMT to the emergency coordination center for the major fire in the Madrid region. The head of the Spanish government will be accompanied by the Ministry of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in the municipality of Cenicientos and will attend an emergency meeting, this source said.
A man arrested
A man was arrested on Friday, suspected of being at the origin of the fire in Ávila, which ravaged 9,000 hectares in the region of Castile and León, after using agricultural machinery, in an area where this was “totally prohibited”, announced the Civil Guard.
In addition to this man, “another person is under investigation as the author of the fire”, indicated the Civil Guard on
It is the “worst fire in history” in the Madrid region, according to regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “For a region like this, with a high concentration of housing and population, it is a disaster,” she stressed. “We have never experienced anything like this,” she added from an emergency coordination center on site, insisting that “the current priority is to save lives”. Spain: the gigantic fire in Guadalajara has decreased in intensity, the army withdraws
The gigantic fire in the province of Guadalajara, which has ravaged 32,000 hectares for more than a week, has decreased in intensity and the army has withdrawn from the area, authorities announced, even if the fire had not yet been extinguished or officially stabilized.
