Spanish wildfires under control as long-awaited rain arrives
The Spanish authorities announced today, Thursday, that the long-awaited rain helped emergency teams control the fires in the eastern province of Valencia.
And the Spanish emergency services announced in a tweet on the social networking site "Twitter" that the spread of fires had been stopped and fires extinguished in many areas.
Two massive fires in the region of Beijs in the north of the country and in the Val d'Ibro region in the south of Valencia destroyed an area of approximately 21,000 hectares of land.
Fires in the Baijis area forced a train to stop on Wednesday.
Several passengers panicked and jumped off the train, with five severely burned, before the train retreated from the flames and returned to its original station.
Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper and national television network RTVE reported that about 2,000 people had been evacuated from their homes amid the fires, and that some could now return.
It is noteworthy that 2022 is the worst year for wildfires since records began, as hundreds of wildfires over the summer have destroyed large swathes of the countryside.
Wildfires have been burning across Europe in dry conditions throughout the summer.
In Portugal, a forest fire about 80 kilometers north of Lisbon has been brought under control, with the participation of about 500 emergency teams, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Experts consider climate change to be a major factor in the increase in the number of wildfires.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news