Authorities evacuated residents from three villages in eastern Spain on Monday (27 March) after winds and dry weather sparked a wildfire that ravaged the region.
In a video that Valencia’s regional weather agency AVAMET shared, flames shot high into air as plumes of smoke billowed out of trees near houses in another village.
“We are seeing images we don’t want to see.” AVAMET stated on Twitter that the fire is growing in strength and is near Montan.
Spain’s first major wildfire has destroyed forests in Valencia and Aragon, forcing approximately 1,500 people from their homes.
Emergency services stated that the last to be cleared were the villages of Higueras Pavias and Torralba del Pinar with a combined population around 75.
As Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the Castellon fire fighting command center in Valencia, he said that the unseasonably warm weather is a result of climate change.
He stated that the climate emergency was not a future emergency but a present and urgent crisis.
After three years of below-average rainfall, Spain is now experiencing a prolonged drought.
This month, a European Commission report noted that there was a shortage of rain and warm-than-normal temperatures in winter. It raised drought warnings for parts of southern Spain, France and Britain.
Authorities are worried about a repeat of 2022 when 780,000 hectares of European forests were lost. This was more than twice the average annual loss over the past 16 years.
