More than one hundred illegally started fires ravaged northern Spain on Friday, according to authorities while blazes that raged for over a week in the country’s east were under control.
In total, 119 fires continued to rage on Friday afternoon in the region of Asturias and in neighbouring Cantabria, according to the authorities of the northern regions.
Of these fires, 91 were in Asturias.
At the worst point, there were 160 fires in the two mountainous regions known for their forests, which are vulnerable to forest fires, but authorities said were started by criminals.
“We are facing real terrorists who have put in danger lives, villages and cities,” said Adrian Barbon, the regional president of Asturias on Twitter.
“Those who act like this don’t deserve any other name,” he told journalists.
Hundreds of people were evacuated and a number of roads were closed, authorities said.
During a visit to China, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter that he had spoken to Barbon and expressed his “solidarity with the impacted families”.
In Castellon, in eastern Valencia, where a significant forest fire has blazed since March 23, firefighters had stabilised the fires by Friday, according to the emergency services.
Considered the first major fire of the year in Spain, a total of 4,700 hectares (11,600 acres) were ravaged, and 1,300 people were forced to evacuate, but they have now started to return to home.
Spain has faced a long drought after three years of inadequate rainfall. Seasonal fires, until now generally limited to summer, will now become a feature of spring and autumn as a result of climate change, authorities warn.
Europe was ravaged by forest fires in 2022, and Spain was the worst affected country with close to 500 blazes which destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
