Hundreds evacuated as Spain wildfire spreads
Published On 20 Jul, 2026
The fire started Thursday in a forest-covered mountainous area near the village of La Mierla in the Castilla-La Mancha region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Madrid.
The authorities ordered the evacuation of four more villages late on Sunday, bringing to over 1,200 the number of people who have had to flee their homes, the regional forest fire response service said on X.
The fire has devoured more than 26,000 hectares (65,000 acres) of land, an area roughly equivalent to the Scottish city of Edinburgh.
The head of the regional government, Emiliano Garcia-Page, said the authorities were making a “truly titanic” effort to contain the blaze.
“We will defeat this fire, people should have no doubt about that,” he told reporters, saying the “absolute priority” was to “protect towns and population centres”.
The fire’s “complexity” was that it was raging through “the emptied Spain, the Spain of abandoned territories”.
“These are immense areas dotted with micro-villages, tiny population centres. We have nearly 30 hamlets inside the fire zone, surrounded by flames,” Garcia-Page said.
