{"id":68660,"date":"2026-08-10T14:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68660\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T14:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:49:37","slug":"southern-spain-wildfire-worsens-as-wind-gusts-hamper-firefighting-efforts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68660\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Spain Wildfire Worsens as Wind Gusts Hamper Firefighting Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MADRID, Aug 10 (Reuters) &#8211; A large wildfire in southwestern \u2060Spain \u2060was burning beyond firefighters&#8217; ability \u2060to extinguish it on Monday, regional authorities said, as hot \u200band windy weather fuelled other blazes raging across the country.<\/p>\n<p>With consecutive heatwaves scorching much of Europe, \u200cthe Mediterranean nation is facing \u200ca devastating summer wildfire season, with over 244,000 hectares (603,000 acres) of countryside burnt in \u2060400 fires \u2060so far this year, according to estimates by the European Forest \u200bFire Information System.<\/p>\n<p>That is an area six times larger than at the same time last year, while across Europe, record heat and droughts this summer \u2013 which scientists say are exacerbated by global \u200bwarming \u2013 have wreaked havoc on power production, shipping and public health systems.<\/p>\n<p>FLYING EMBERS \u2060SPREAD FIRES \u2060IN ALL DIRECTIONS<\/p>\n<p>Andalusia&#8217;s regional \u2060head of \u200bemergencies, Antonio Sanz, told reporters that extinguishing the fire in the southwest of the \u200bcountry around the medieval town \u2060of Niebla was akin to a &#8220;long-distance obstacle race&#8221; and was expected to last several days.<\/p>\n<p>It has already affected a surface of nearly 20,000 hectares.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added that the combination of wind gusts, the area&#8217;s rugged terrain, and convective phenomena creating fire clouds was spreading \u2060flying embers in all directions, causing secondary fires to break out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 500 people \u2060have been evacuated from the area while further precautionary measures were being assessed, Sanz said.<\/p>\n<p>Other wildfires remained active in the central province of Segovia and Castellon in the east.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Segovia, a fire that started on Saturday when a vehicle ignited on a motorway forced 176 inhabitants of two towns to leave their homes as it rapidly spread across surrounding pastures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Local authorities said on Monday the situation was improving after humidity increased overnight, but the large number of \u2060trees dotting the granite-strewn landscape could complicate firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Another fire in Castellon&#8217;s Tirig that has so far burnt around 800 hectares and prompted the evacuation of 900 people was still active but close to being stabilised after &#8220;very favourable&#8221; weather \u200bovernight, according to the regional government of Valencia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by David Latona; \u200bEditing by Andrei Khalip AND David Holmes)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See: August 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786373377_632_august-07-pyss-y01.jpg\" alt=\"An attendee reacts to election results during a primary election night event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID, Aug 10 (Reuters) &#8211; A large wildfire in southwestern \u2060Spain \u2060was burning beyond firefighters&#8217; ability \u2060to extinguish&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1512,2128,197,66,1928,17,394],"class_list":["post-68660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-climate-change","tag-collections-world","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-reuters","tag-spain","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68660","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=68660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}