Spain is grappling with the largest forest fire in recent history, generating considerable clouds of smoke and spreading a burning smell in its capital, Madrid.
“The more the evening progressed, the more we saw the cloud moving towards the city,” said Quebecer Vincent Dufresne, who is traveling to Madrid.
The fire in Avila, a few dozen kilometers west of Madrid, has become “the largest” blaze in the country’s recent history, Minister of Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen said on Sunday.
A helicopter tries to put out forest fires 70 km west of Madrid on Sunday.
PHOTO AFP
On Saturday evening, authorities ordered the evacuation of eight new communities near the fire. A total of 60,000 people had to be evacuated from the region.
The fire “exceeded all possible and imaginable limits”, Mar Nicolas, mayor of the small neighboring town of Brunete, which is hosting around a hundred evacuees, told AFP.
A firefighter fighting fires near the Spanish capital.
PHOTO AFP
“The priority” is “to save lives”, she emphasizes, but the councilor does not hide his concern in the face of “the immense natural disaster that all this is causing”.
Tourism inside
Vincent Dufresne did not perceive the impact of the forest fires on Madrid before going up to the roof of a hotel for a drink on Friday evening.
He took photos showing the scale of the plume of smoke approaching the capital.
Vincent Dufresne took this photo of the smoke approaching Madrid on Friday.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VINCENT DUFRESNE
“It was still impressive,” he said, adding that the next day the smoke had been replaced by a yellowing sky and that the situation had since improved.
Vincent Dufresne and his partner, Annie St-Germain, in Madrid.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VINCENT DUFRESNE
Valérie Ross, originally from Montérégie, was on a train between Malaga and Madrid on Friday when she received a “civil security alert” on her phone. This ordered a lockdown in the area of the city of Toledo, which is also struggling with forest fires.
“It was a little scary at the time. Like when you receive an Amber Alert in Quebec, it wakes you up as they say,” confides the 43-year-old woman, who is visiting Spain with her partner and daughter.
The alert received by Valérie Ross while she was on a train near Toledo.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VALERIE ROSS
Ms. Ross’s family planned to visit Toledo, but removed it from their itinerary due to the fires. In Madrid, she smelled smoke and prioritized indoor activities, like museums, so as not to “breathe that.”
“Difficult hours” ahead
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, affirmed that “difficult hours” were ahead in the face of the fires, but noted positive developments overnight regarding the control of the fires around Madrid.
Several countries in Europe are struggling with forest fires, including France in the Gironde department.
The massive fire which covered 42,000 hectares is located only 15 kilometers from the city of Bordeaux, but an evacuation was not “on the agenda” on Sunday, said its mayor, Thomas Cazenave.
• Also watch this video podcast taken from Alexandre Dubé’s show, broadcast on QUB platforms and simultaneously on 99.5 FM Montréal:
– With AFP
