Amid applause from volunteers and residents of the municipalities that have welcomed them these days. This is how the return home began for the 29,000 people evacuated from 15 municipalities in Madrid and Ávila who yesterday received the good news that the fire is no longer a threat to their lives or their homes.
The Burgohondo fire, in Ávila, with more than 50,000 hectares burned, the worst recorded in Spain since records began, and the one in Madrid, with more than 25,000 hectares, have been perfectly visible from space.
After five days of relentless fighting against three fires in Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo, which eventually became one (in terms of combating them, not physically), there are positive results. The race against time carried out on Monday night by hundreds of personnel finally showed “positive progress,” said the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, who could not hide his joy.
The extraordinary benefit for workers affected by the fires approved today by the Council of Ministers can be claimed for four months, does not require a prior contribution period, and does not consume future benefits. In addition, the aid also extends to the relatives of those affected. These are the characteristics of this specific aid for those affected by the fires that are ravaging Spanish territory these days, especially Madrid, Toledo, and Ávila. These are measures for salaried workers, with similar ones for the self-employed, to whom it will be applied through the cessation of activity, detailed in the royal decree law accessed by “La Vanguardia”.
The Government has declared this Tuesday the territories affected by a total of 211 catastrophic episodes, mostly due to forest fires, that have occurred between March 31 and July 27, 2026, and that have caused damage in regions of fourteen autonomous communities, including Catalonia, as areas affected by a civil protection emergency. This declaration includes the current fires in the Community of Madrid and the provinces of Ávila and Toledo that prompted the declaration of a national interest emergency on July 23, the first time this decision has been made in emergencies derived from forest fires. Also the one recorded in the municipality of Vall d’Uixó in Castellón.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, reviews a difficult political term marked by various judicial cases affecting the PSOE or its family environment and by the lack of agreements that have prevented the approval of the planned housing decree and have moved away the possibility of new budgets.
With thousands of people evacuated and more than 150,000 hectares burned this year in Spain, one of the main questions among those affected is who pays for the damages and what aid they can receive. While the Government prepares the declaration of a severely affected area and new measures to protect workers affected by the fires, compensation depends on a combination of private insurance and public aid.
The fire declared on Saturday in the town of Vall d’Uixó in Castellón remains active and has already devastated about 8,500 hectares and reached an approximate perimeter of 72 kilometers. From the Advanced Command Post, the Valencian Government’s Emergency Minister, Juan Carlos Valderrama, explained that during the night from Sunday to Monday “the spread has been contained,” but he emphasized that the fire “is active, neither stabilized nor controlled.” The flames have already affected 80,000 people, including 16,000 evacuated and 65,000 confined in the municipalities of Vall d’Uixó (32,000 inhabitants), Onda (25,000), and Betxí (5,700).
Climatic conditions and high temperatures increase the risk of wildfires in large areas of the country. But what also grow and spread are clichés, lies, and misinformation. There are those who like to heat up the atmosphere with false news, many of them with political intent. In this context, it is common for false or misleading messages to proliferate, generating confusion, social alarm, and distrust towards institutions. To prevent this, it is crucial to debunk the most common myths about wildfires. This is a ranking of some of these myths.
Manolo Verdejo can be considered almost one of the veteran firefighters of the Villalba park: he has been practicing the profession in the Community of Madrid for 24 years. “I had never experienced anything like this in a forest fire,” he tells La Vanguardia in a phone interview. “Three fires came together and we had to change the operation very quickly,” he admits.