“Difficult hours ahead” in fight to tackle wildfires, Spanish PM says

Efforts to contain wildfires raging near Madrid developed “very positively” but “there are still some difficult hours ahead” before the most dangerous areas can be stabilised, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters today.

“We are working to consolidate certain areas where it appears the fires may already have been contained and extinguished,” Sánchez said, as he visited areas in Avila affected by the fires.

That echoed the update given by Lt. Col Alfonso Arribas, who leads the Military Emergency Unit responsible for managing the fire response.

“Significant progress has been made in the work carried out around the entire perimeter,” Arribas told Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE. “Right now, we could say that the entire front is effectively contained.” A few hotspots are still being worked on, he said.

“We hope that today’s conditions will allow us to work on those specific areas that remain out of control. However, this certainly does not apply to the entire perimeter,” he added.

The wildfire season is worsening, Sánchez said, pointing out that the total area burnt this year had increased from 130,000 to 150,000 hectares (502 to 579 square miles) in less than 24 hours.

-CNN