No time left. Firefighting professionals (UME, firefighters, and forest rangers) are giving it their all. They know they have barely 48 hours to stop the fire that is ravaging the center of the peninsula, in the provinces of Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo, affecting about 70,000 hectares, of which around 50,000 are in the natural jewel that is Gredos, sadly making this Ávila area the largest fire in the history of Spain. And this race against time is explained by the new heat wave, the fourth, arriving on Wednesday and which will again push temperatures to between 35 and 40 degrees.

The large forest fires began yesterday to show slight signs of improvement in Ávila, Madrid, and Toledo, although the firefighting teams still have “very complex hours” ahead, after burning 77,000 hectares – with a perimeter of 280 km – and forcing the evacuation or confinement of nearly 95,000 people across the three provinces. Meanwhile, the fire in La Vall d’Uixò (Castellón) remains out of control. With this, the number of people evacuated or confined is now close to 136,000. After another day marked by flames and moderate optimism about their evolution, in the fires in central Spain alone, there are 65,096 evacuated and 29,867 confined. To these must be added the 41,000 affected in one way or another in Castellón.

The large forest fires are starting to show signs of improvement in Ávila, Madrid, and Toledo, although extinction teams still face “very complex hours” after burning 77.000 hectares, with a perimeter of 280 km, and forcing the evacuation or confinement of nearly 90.000 people in the three provinces, while the fire in La Vall d’Uixò (Castellón) continues out of control. In the fires of Ávila, Madrid, and Toledo, there are 59.896 evacuated and 29.867 confined.

The King highlighted, this midday, after visiting with the Queen a group of residents evacuated from the fire zones, the importance of the coordinated work of all administrations, emergency services, and volunteers. “United, any risk can be faced,” the King said upon leaving the La Chopera sports center, in the Madrid municipality of Villamanta, which hosts residents evacuated from Villa del Prado, Aldea del Fresno, and other municipalities in the southwest of the Community of Madrid.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, went to the Advanced Command Center in Cenicientos, which coordinates all efforts and personnel in the fight against the fires devastating central Spain, just two hours before it had to be evacuated due to the proximity of the flames. Sánchez, who thanked everyone involved for their efforts in the extinction work, stressed that although “complex hours” are ahead, the weekend represents “a window of opportunity to control the fire” and thus “save lives”.

New evacuations due to fire in the province of Ávila. According to the Government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen, the inhabitants of seven other towns in Ávila have had to leave with just a bag containing their papers and some clothes. These are Piedralaves, La Adrada, Casillas, Casavieja, Sotillo de La Adrada, Santa María del Tietar, and Navahondilla. The population has received an ES-Alert message on mobile phones located in the affected areas. Throughout Saturday morning, new towns have been evacuated, and even the command post in Cenicientos has had to be evacuated and will be moved to Navalcarnero. In the Community of Madrid, the number of evacuees is already around 40,000.

The fire has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes in the western mountains of Madrid and the Ávila valleys of Tiétar and Iruelas (about 90,000 between evacuated and confined). The vast majority have gone to their primary residences or to relatives’ homes, but many have been housed in more than a dozen sports centers distributed throughout the region (except in Madrid city, which does not house anyone).

The Government takes control of Madrid due to the advance of a huge fire (the two fronts, that of Villa del Prado and that of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, joined forces at noon) that threatens the lives of the numerous population living in the western mountains of this region.