Spain’s first major wildfire of the year raged in the eastern Valencia region on Friday, destroying more than 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of forest and forcing 1,500 residents to leave their homes, officials said.
An unusually dry winter in parts of the south of the European continent has reduced soil moisture and raised fears of a repeat of 2022, when 785,000 hectares were lost in Europe – double the annual average of the previous 16 years More than, according to European Commission (EC) statistics.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told a news conference, “These fires that we are seeing, especially at the beginning of this year, are once again evidence of the climate emergency that humanity is living through, which is particularly affecting and ravaging countries like ours.” Brussels.
Last year, a record 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land in Spain, according to the European Forest Fire Information System of the Commission.