Cooler temperatures helped firefighters yesterday stabilize a wildfire in northwestern Spain that reports say is the biggest on record in the country.
The fire in the Sierra de Culebra mountain range in Zamora province has burnt 31,000 hectares so far. The state news agency Efe said that made it the biggest on record since a fire in southwestern Huelva province razed just under 30,000 hectares in 2004.
While the Zamora fire wasn’t under complete control, there are no longer flames and it’s no longer spreading, authorities said.
A drop in soaring temperatures allowed for about 650 firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft to establish a perimeter around the fire that started Wednesday. People from 18 villages had to be evacuated over the past week.
Elsewhere, 900 people were evacuated from 13 villages in the northern region of Navarra where two wildfires were still active.
In Germany, heavy showers yesterday helped largely extinguish two big forest fires about 20 kilometers apart to the southwest of Berlin. Officials said hundreds of people were able to return to their homes after being evacuated as a precaution over the weekend. Roads also were reopened.
