Spain’s first big wildfire of the year has scorched more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of forest and forced 1,500 people to leave their homes in the Valencia region.
Residents recounted fleeing their houses and leaving animals behind. “Bad – how am I supposed to feel? Your town is burning, your life is burning, Our animals were there and no one can tell us anything,” said Antonio Zarzoso, 24, who had to leave the village of Puebla de Arenoso.
More than 500 firefighters supported by 20 planes and helicopters were working to bring the blaze under control near the village of Villanueva de Viver, emergency services said on Saturday.
However, they said they had managed to stop the fire spreading to other areas.
“The surrounding forest has been reached by fire and we don’t know how exactly the area looks,” said Montse Boronat, from Los Calpes.
Ximo Puig, the president of the Valencia region, told reporters the blaze was made more “voracious” by summer-like temperatures of about 30C (86F).
The regional newspaper Las Provincias reported that police believed the blaze might have been started by a spark from a machine used to gather brushwood.
A Spanish civil guard spokesperson said an investigation was under way into the cause of the fire.
An unusually dry winter across parts of southern Europe has raised concerns that there could be a repeat of last year’s devastating wildfires.
The weather along Spain’s north-eastern Mediterranean coast will be drier and hotter than usual this spring, increasing the risk of fires, the meteorological agency Aemet said last week.
Last year 785,000 hectares were destroyed in Europe, more than double the annual average for the past 16 years, according to European Commission statistics.
In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land, according to the commission’s European Forest Fire Information System.