MADRID – A wildfire caused by a lightning strike on Wednesday in the province of Zamora in the northwest of Madrid has become the worst ever recorded in the history of Spain, regional authorities confirmed yesterday.
The fire in the Sierra de la Culebra nature reserve has been fuelled by temperatures of over 40°C and winds gusting at up to 70km an hour, reported Xinhua.
So far 30,800ha of woodland and scrub with a perimeter of 120.88km have been destroyed.
The previous worst fires were in the region of Huelva in southwest Spain, which destroyed 29,687ha in 2004 and another fire that affected 28,879ha in Cortes de Pallas in eastern Spain in 2012.
The reserve is environmentally important as it contains the highest concentration of wolves in the Iberian Peninsula, along with important populations of red and roe deer.
Hundreds of firefighters accompanied by members of the Spanish Military Emergency unit are now working to dampen down the area and establish fire breaks.
Elsewhere, 13 municipalities in the region Navarre in northern Spain have had to be evacuated due to a series of wildfires described by the local government as “the worst in decades”. – Bernama, June 21, 2022
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