Extreme heat and strong winds sparked fierce “fire whirls” as wildfires engulfed several homes and forced the evacuation of hundreds near a UNESCO-listed national park in northern Spain, authorities said Monday.
Thirteen separate fires erupted across the northern Castile and León region, prompting about 700 residents in six villages to flee their homes.
By Monday morning, four fires remained active, said Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, the regional government’s environment chief, while firefighters had contained the other nine.
On Sunday, soaring temperatures fueled dangerous fire whirls near Las Medallas park, forcing firefighters to pull back and allowing flames to consume homes in the adjacent village, Suarez-Quinones added.
“This occurs when temperatures reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in a very confined valley and then suddenly [the fire] enters a more open and oxygenated area. This produces a fireball, a fire whirl,” he said.
