Spain declares national emergency as wildfires spread near Madrid
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- Spain declared a national emergency as wildfires spread near Madrid and Ávila, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate and prompting the deployment of emergency resources.
Spain declared a national emergency late Thursday in the Madrid region and the nearby province of Ávila after multiple wildfires spiraled out of control, forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
The measure, announced by the Interior Ministry, is aimed at speeding up the deployment of resources to fight the fires and places the response under the coordination of the country’s Military Emergency Unit.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in recent days across the Madrid region, where several wildfires are burning simultaneously.
On Thursday, authorities ordered around 3,500 residents to leave their homes in a town west of Madrid as flames spread rapidly. Spanish media reported that a wildfire in Ávila had intensified, with residents in the municipalities of Burgohondo, El Tiemblo and Navaluenga told to remain indoors.
Around 1,500 people were evacuated from a rural tourism complex and a residential area in El Tiemblo due to the advancing fires, according to local media reports.
The largest blaze is burning in Guadalajara province, about 100 kilometers northeast of Madrid, where it has destroyed around 32,000 hectares since it began last Thursday.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government had deployed all available resources to contain the fires affecting several regions, including Ávila, León, Toledo and Madrid.
"All available resources have been deployed to stop the devastating fires currently affecting many areas of Spain," Sánchez said in a post on X, urging residents to exercise "maximum caution" and follow instructions from authorities.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), wildfires have burned around 125,000 hectares in Spain so far this year, compared with approximately 393,000 hectares throughout the whole of 2025.
