Rescue services continue to battle several fires in Spain on Sunday as the extreme and unusually early heat wave begins to subside.
The largest of these forest fires has already destroyed more than 25,000 hectares in the Sierra de la Culebra, a mountain range in the Castile and Leon region, near the border with Portugal, according to regional authorities.
The fire, which broke out on Wednesday during stormy and dry weather, had forced the authorities to evacuate 14 villages, where several hundred people live.
The latter were allowed to return home on Sunday morning, due to the improvement in the situation, local officials said.
Several roads have been reopened and a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern region of Galicia, which was closed on Saturday due to the fires, has also been reopened, they added.
Elsewhere in the country, smaller forest fires were also raging in the region of Catalonia (north-west) and in the region of Navarre (north), one of the few regions in Spain where temperatures remained exceptionally high on Sunday.
The regional government of Navarre has urged the population to avoid unnecessary trips to keep the roads clear for fire crews.
We have a very difficult few hours ahead of ustold the press the director of the Ministry of the Interior of Navarre, Amparo Lopez Antelo.
One week at 40°C
The work of the emergency services was made difficult by high temperatures and gusts coming from the south, at a speed of more than 30 km / h, she added.
Temperatures above 40C have been recorded in Spain throughout the week, but fell across most of the country on Sunday.
On Sunday, the mercury is expected to reach just 29°C in Madrid and 25°C in the province of Zamora, where the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range is located.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
