Spain’s government declared a national emergency on Friday after multiple wildfires forced the evacuation of roughly 10,000 people across villages in the central region of Madrid, transferring command of firefighting operations to the interior ministry.
The declaration hands the interior ministry, which oversees the country’s police and security forces, authority to coordinate the response across affected regions. The move marks a significant escalation in Spain’s handling of a fire season that has already scorched vast tracts of land.
The regional government of Madrid, which spans a broad area surrounding the capital, confirmed that thousands had been ordered from their homes as blazes raged out of control. A prolonged heat wave has fanned the flames, complicating containment efforts.
Spain has recorded more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) burned so far this year. Among the worst incidents was the country’s second-largest fire on record, which consumed some 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in the province of Guadalajara in recent days. Thirteen people died in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month.
The emergency comes amid a wider crisis gripping the region, with tens of thousands of residents across the border in southern France also forced to abandon their homes. The parallel disasters echo the scale of destruction seen in the mass displacement that swept both nations during earlier waves of blazes this season.
In France, authorities reported that roughly 40,000 people had been evacuated or were in the process of fleeing a fire that had ravaged more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres). “As I speak, gradually, 40,000 people have either been evacuated or are currently being evacuated,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, describing the blaze as “the largest of the season.”
The escalating emergencies have intensified scrutiny of preparedness across the continent, following the European Union’s push earlier this year to bolster its collective response to increasingly severe fire seasons.
With the heat wave forecast to persist, Spanish authorities face mounting pressure to contain the fires before they spread further. The national emergency declaration is expected to streamline coordination between regional and federal resources as crews battle the blazes in the days ahead.