{"id":60011,"date":"2026-07-24T07:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/60011\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:20:07","slug":"spain-declares-national-emergency-over-wildfires-near-madrid-and-in-avila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/60011\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Declares National Emergency Over Wildfires Near Madrid and in Avila"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MADRID, July 24 (Reuters) &#8211; The Spanish government on \u2060Thursday \u2060night declared a national emergency \u2060after a series of wildfires threatened communities near Madrid and \u200bin the neighbouring province of Avila, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate as firefighters \u200cstruggled to contain the blazes.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200cInterior Ministry said the decision was taken because of the simultaneous outbreak of \u2060several fires, \u2060adverse weather conditions and the need to mobilise extensive resources from \u200bdifferent public administrations, increasing the complexity of firefighting and civil protection efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Spain and much of southern Europe face increasingly severe wildfire seasons that scientists have linked to climate change. \u200bExperts say abundant vegetation growth following unusually heavy spring rainfall has dried out \u2060in extreme \u2060summer heat, creating fuel \u2060for rapidly \u200bspreading fires.<\/p>\n<p>The regional government of Madrid requested assistance, describing the situation as one of &#8220;extreme \u200bgravity&#8221;. It said active \u2060fires in Villa del Prado, San Martin de Valdeiglesias and Almorox, in neighbouring Castile-La Mancha, had the potential to advance beyond current extinguishing capacity. It also warned that the wildfire in Burgohondo, Avila, could reach the Madrid region in the coming \u2060hours due to weather conditions.<\/p>\n<p>More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from \u2060Villa del Prado, San Martin de Valdeiglesias, Pelayos de la Presa and Aldea del Fresno, according to the regional government.<\/p>\n<p>Under Spain&#8217;s National Civil Protection System law, the declaration places the emergency under the direct authority of the interior minister, who is responsible for coordinating the response. Authorities said it was the first such declaration linked to a wildfire.<\/p>\n<p>More than 270 emergency personnel and 40 ground units have been deployed in the affected areas, \u2060alongside several Military Emergency Unit(UME) contingents.<\/p>\n<p>More than 100,000 hectares have burned in Spain so far this year, roughly equivalent to the country&#8217;s average annual burned area over the past decade. Thirteen people have died, making 2026 one \u200bof the deadliest wildfire seasons in decades.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; \u200bEditing by Jes\u00fas Aguado and Tomasz Janowski)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 June 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784877607_245_june-26-pyss-u01.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's hand presses against a plastic sheet used to replace the shattered glass of a balcony door damaged in an Israeli strike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID, July 24 (Reuters) &#8211; The Spanish government on \u2060Thursday \u2060night declared a national emergency \u2060after a series&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1512,2128,197,66,82,17891,1928,17,394],"class_list":["post-60011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-climate-change","tag-collections-world","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-madrid","tag-pollution","tag-reuters","tag-spain","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}