Conditions are slowly improving across Castilla y León as firefighters continue battling a series of major blazes, but authorities issued a fresh evacuation order Saturday for the La Picota residential area in La Adrada, directing residents to leave their homes and gather at the town’s community centre.
The alert, sent via the ES-Alert emergency system to mobile phones in the affected zone, told residents to follow instructions from authorities at all times. Spain’s Directorate General of Traffic also closed road AV-930 between kilometre markers 1.3 and 4.5 in La Adrada municipality in both directions, a restriction that took effect at 17:09 on Saturday. Drivers were advised to check road conditions before travelling in the area.
The Burgohondo fire in Ávila, which prompted the new evacuation, remains at level 2 of the Potential Severity Index, the highest alert category. Conditions are also improving at Fermoselle in Zamora, but the Veguellina fire in Villafranca del Bierzo, León, remains a serious concern. That blaze has burned more than 1,300 hectares and forced the evacuation of three villages: Moreda, San Pedro de Olleros and Prado de Somoza. More than 250 firefighting professionals, 15 aerial resources, units from the Military Emergency Unit and a team sent from Germany are working the Veguellina front.
Isabel Blanco, vice president of the Junta de Castilla y León, visited the Advanced Command Post in Villafranca del Bierzo on Saturday to assess the situation. She announced a recovery plan worth nearly €90 million aimed at rebuilding fire-affected areas, supporting farmers and beekeepers, and revitalising municipalities where more than 500 hectares have burned, including those hit by the Burgohondo, Fermoselle and Veguellina fires.
Blanco said the money would go toward reconstruction and helping communities recover, and added that the aid package could be expanded to address the needs arising from evacuations still under way. She also called for caution, urging people to take extra care during what she described as a complicated summer for fires.
The scale of this year’s crisis came into sharper focus when Sara Aagesen, minister for Ecological Transition, also visited the command post in Villafranca del Bierzo. She said Spain had recorded 38 large forest fires so far this year, burning more than 186,000 hectares. Aagesen noted that last year there were 11 large fires, which was already considered a very complex season. She warned that temperatures, though no longer at heatwave levels, remain extraordinarily high and are expected to stay that way at least through Monday.
León province has five additional active fires beyond Veguellina, including a recently declared blaze in Fabero and fires in Moreda, San Tirso and Valdelaloba in the Bierzo region, as well as a fire at La Utrera in Valdesamario. Several other fires, including one at Murias de Ponjos that had also reached level 2, have since been stabilised.
Joaquín Antonio Pino, the regional agriculture minister, travelled to the Tiétar Valley to meet with ranchers and local mayors affected by the fires. He said he was also overseeing efforts to supply straw, hay, fodder, feed and water to farms that have lost pastures or food stores as a result of the blazes.
