Wildfires in Madrid force 19,000 to evacuate or stay indoors as regional president calls it a catastrophe with 6,000 hectares burned.
MADRID: At least 19,000 people in the Madrid region have been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors due to wildfires that have become the worst in the region’s history, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Friday.
The fires in the densely populated area around the Spanish capital have burned around 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres), Ayuso told reporters.
She said that while an area of this size being burnt in other, more rural regions “would not be considered so significant”, in Madrid “with such a high concentration of homes and people, it is a catastrophe”.
Around 100 people have been treated for minor cases, mainly smoke inhalation or anxiety attacks, while at least 43 homes have been destroyed, Ayuso said.
“The situation is completely unusual and catastrophic,” she said, adding that the priority was “to save lives”.
The wildfires were being fought with 31 ground vehicles and nine aircraft, she said.
The central government said nearly 2,000 firefighters, military emergency personnel, Civil Guard officers and other officials from the Environment Ministry were deployed to fight the fires, including a separate blaze near Avila in the neighbouring Castile and Leon region.
