“Stay indoors as much as possible”: Thomas Fawkes’ summer stay in Madrid, with his wife and son, did not quite turn out as hoped due to the devastating fires raging around fifty kilometers from the Spanish capital.
• Also read: More than 325,000 refugees from fire in France and Spain, fire 15 km from the Bordeaux metropolis
• Also read: Fire out of control near Valencia, Spain, 15,000 evacuated
With his little family, this American lawyer, who arrived a few days ago from Chicago, had to adapt his program on Saturday in the face of “the smoke” which surrounded Madrid, to the point of stinging the throat.
“We tried to stay inside a little more. Otherwise, we would have walked around more, but we really felt (the smoke), so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible,” he admitted to AFP.
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The trio therefore visited the famous Prado art museum and a typical “mercado” in the city center so as not to be too exposed to the fumes.
On this Sunday morning, the blanket surrounding Madrid has dissipated, and the tourists who have come in large numbers to the large park of the temple of Amun can enjoy the beautiful view, under a beautiful blue summer sky.
“Getting hotter and hotter”
Not far away, Pilar and Douglas, a retired couple from New Zealand traveling in Europe for several months, are concerned by the turn of events, in the midst of global warming.
They make the same observation: “We come to Europe every year and we have noticed that it is getting hotter and hotter.”
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Sunglasses on her nose and cap on her head, Pilar, 69, explains that she was prepared with the fire in the region: she “has a surgical mask” in her handbag in case the smell is too strong again, after seeing “very black smoke” when landing at the airport.
“We were never afraid that the fire would actually reach Madrid, but rather it was the effect it had on the air quality,” notes the 71-year-old husband.
Before Spain, they were notably in Paris, where “it was too hot”, and they must now reach Bilbao on Monday, in the Spanish Basque Country (north), bordering France. Or very close to the fires which continue to ravage thousands of hectares in the Landes and especially near Bordeaux, without having been able to be brought under control until now.
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“We are going to get closer […]so we don’t know if this will change our plans,” says Pilar, expectantly. Her husband agrees, fatalistic: perhaps it will be necessary, next year, to come “in spring or autumn” to avoid the stifling heat and such mishaps.
Fires everywhere, refuge nowhere
“In shock”, too, and “a little stressed”, Letisha Lucas, a 33-year-old Canadian, says she did not expect such a welcome when she arrived in Spain for a planned vacation with a friend, Lindsay.
“It stung my throat a lot,” she says, explaining “that she drank (the day before) a lot of water to stay hydrated.”
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Originally from Ontario, where large forest fires recently raged, she smiles bitterly as she says the fires have “unfortunately” followed her. “When we arrived here, we thought we had left that, and therefore learned that there were also fires here…”
“It’s unfortunate and sad to see how much our world is changing,” she laments.
Since the start of the year, nearly 130,000 hectares have already burned in Spain, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), after an already record year in 2025.
What makes Madrid businesses that make their living from tourism fear a negative impact on their revenue? Raquel Cano, the owner of the “Casa Parrondo” restaurant, does not want this, even if she recognizes that “it affects everything, (including) tourism”.
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She takes as an example “the deadly floods” of October 2024 in Valencia, which remain in the minds of all Spaniards.
Faced with the “devastating” flames, the manager nevertheless wants to remain optimistic: “The people who want to come, they will come anyway. But it’s not the same thing to see the forest green as to see it devastated and all black.”
