NORTH-WESTERN Spain is on high alert due to a string of wildfires which have already wiped out over 2,500 hectares (about 6,200 acres) in three regions, sparked by the unusually-high temperatures over Easter weekend and still burning.
Mayor of Ferrol (A Coruña province, Galicia) Jorge Suárez calls the inferno 'an environmental tragedy', with 450 hectares (1,110 acres) having been destroyed in his and the neighbouring town, Val de Narón.
Miraculously, nobody has been hurt, despite the flames spreading across several municipalities – one in Oza-Cesuras is creeping dangerously close to O Picheiro, part of Ferrol's tied hamlet of Covas – and the blaze in Vizoño is now under control with those in As Pontes and Negreira extinguished.
Galicia is also under threat from the forest fires burning in Portugal's Peneda Gerés National Park, barely 10 or 20 kilometres south of the Ourense province border in Galicia, although at present, these seem to be under control.
To the south-east of Galicia, in Castilla y León, flames continue to rage as the Armed Forces emergency response unit and firefighters battle against infernos in Peñalba de Santiago (León province) and Nieva (Segovia province).
The worst so far in Castilla y León broke out three days ago on Wednesday in Bouzas, in the Tebaida mountains of the province of León, with nearly 2,000 hectares destroyed and residents in neighbouring villages including San Clemente and Valdueza concerned after they became surrounded by a wall of flames.
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