Technicians warn of a worsening of conditions in Galicia in the coming hours and urge people to avoid travel.

Four members of the UME were injured in the Yeres fire in León.

The fires ravaging several areas of Spain are showing no respite this holiday Friday. Galicia, Castilla y León, and Extremadura are the most affected regions. In the former, the spread of the flames is worsening in the province of Orense, ravaged by nine active fires—the tenth in the province of La Coruña—to the point that Civil Protection has issued alerts to the mobile phones of thousands of residents in 32 municipalities. The population is being urged to self-isolate and avoid any type of travel due to the proximity of the flames, amid worsening conditions caused by the lack of rain and extreme temperatures in the vicinity of the fires. If you are outside and have no place to seek shelter, Emergencies urges you to stay as far away as possible from the areas affected by the flames and, in any case, avoid any type of travel, given the danger posed by the fire.

Although the number of hectares burned throughout the day by the ten active fires in Galicia has not been disclosed, the Emergency Department indicated this afternoon that technicians warn of a worsening of conditions in the coming hours, at a time when both the center and the south of the Galician community are above 35 degrees and approaching 40 in some of the most critical areas of Orense, where the flames have been advancing for days and have engulfed more than 30,000 hectares of land.

While the rail link between Madrid and Galicia remains closed for the third consecutive day, secondary roads connecting the city of Orense with the rest of the country are experiencing congestion and traffic jams for miles. In recent hours, road closures have occurred on the A-52 between kilometers 129 and 132, near A Gudiña and A Mezquita, respectively, and on the N-525 between kilometers 118 and 132, also in the aforementioned towns. In addition, complications have been reported on roads near Riós and Benavente, with traffic jams and dangerous conditions due to the proximity of the fire.

In Castile and León, the situation is currently extreme, according to the forest fire report compiled by the regional government on the Inforcyl platform early this afternoon. In total, there are 40 active fires, of which twelve are at Potential Severity Index (PSI) 2 in the provinces of Zamora, León, Salamanca, and Ávila, while six have reached level 1 in León, Palencia, Salamanca, and Zamora. The most worrying is the one that spread from Orense to the province of Zamora through the Sanabria region.

Progress on the work, meanwhile, has been uneven. While in some areas, such as Villanueva de la Sierra and Villaseca, the operation has been able to apply so-called technical fire or backfire—that is, igniting an area before the flame front arrives so that it stops spreading there as there is nothing else to burn—in others, this has not been possible, such as in Castromil, the first town evacuated after the fire that started in A Mezquita was seen moving toward Zamora.

In addition, four members of the Ministry of Defense's Military Emergency Unit (UME) who are working to control and extinguish the fires in León were injured while participating in the response to the fire that broke out on August 9 in Yeres.

Extremadura and Asturias

The fourth day of fighting the fire in Extremadura is proving to be considerably more complicated than it seemed early this morning. The early hours had been positive for extinguishing efforts, which reduced the danger of the Jarilla fire in the Jerte Valley and brought under control another raging blaze in the southern countryside of Badajoz, which had devastated 5,000 hectares.

However, a significant flare-up of the Jarilla fire near the municipality of Casas del Monte forced the evacuation of the town. The blaze continues to rage in that direction, although progress is favorable elsewhere. In fact, the 700 residents of Jarilla, Cabezabellosa, and Villar de Plasencia have been able to return to their homes after three days of evacuation.

By mid-afternoon, the region was recording eight simultaneously active fires. In addition to Jarilla, two other fires in Casar de Cáceres and Aliseda are causing concern, forcing residents of two residential areas to evacuate. The president of the Regional Government of Extremadura, María Guardiola, received a call from Pedro Sánchez, whom she once again demanded more state resources.

Asturias, for its part, has two wildfires with challenging weather, according to the Regional Minister of Mobility, Environment, and Emergency Management, Alejandro Calvo. These fires originated in León, located in the Somiedo and Genestoso areas, with extremely high temperatures and southerly winds hampering extinguishing efforts.