The flames are back. Around 700 Spanish firefighters, assisted by around 20 aerial vehicles, were fighting the first major forest fire of the year on Saturday, which got out of control 48 hours after it started and led to the evacuation of 1,500 people from a locality located north of Valencia.
Regional emergency services said on Twitter that the fire, which has already covered 3,900 hectares in Villanueva de Viver, was “a high difficulty fire”.
A black year in 2022
“The fire has not stabilized and continues with great ferocity due to the weather conditions which are almost summery,” said Ximo Puig, president of the Valencia region, on Spanish television RTVE.
In 2022, a dark year for forest fires in Europe, Spain was the most affected country on the continent, with nearly 500 fires that ravaged more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. forest (Effis).
