Spanish wildfires under control amid rain

Madrid, Aug 18

Long-awaited rains have aided emergency workers in subduing raging wildfires in the eastern Spanish province of Valencia, authorities said on Thursday. Spanish emergency services tweeted on Thursday that the spread of the fire has been arrested and that the flames could be extinguished in many areas, reports dpa news agency.

Two wildfires in the Bejis region in the north, and in Vall d'Ebro in the south of Valencia have ravaged an area of around 21,000 hectares of land.

On Wednesday, the fires in Bejis forced a train to stop.

Several passengers panicked and jumped out of the train, with five suffering significant burns, before the train backed out of the blazes and returned to its station of origin.

Some 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes amid the fires, of which some are now able to return, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia and national television broadcaster RTVE reported.

2022 has been the worst year for forest fires since records began, with hundreds of wildfires throughout the summer destroying swathes of the countryside.

Forest fires have erupted across Europe amid dry conditions throughout the summer.

In Portugal, a forest fire around 80 km north of Lisbon has also been brought under control by around 500 emergency workers, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Experts consider climate change to be a major factor in the increasing number of wildfires.

Climate change causes higher temperatures, which in turn leads to the dry conditions that allow fires to erupt and spread more easily and more quickly.

--IANS