Spain is close to bringing under control the massive wildfires that have torn through the country this month, killing four people and scorching vast areas of land, the nation’s civil protection chief said Saturday.
"There are fewer of them, and the end is a lot nearer," the official, Virginia Barcones, told state television network TVE.
The ones remaining were still very "treacherous", she said, however, and "we will need a final push to be done with this horrible situation".
Spanish firefighters, helped by other EU countries, have been battling blazes that have scorched a record 403,000 hectares (996,000 acres), most of it in the past two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
The regions hardest hit were in the north and the west: Castile and Leon, Extremadura, and Galicia. The wildfires flared during a heatwave that baked the country for two weeks, sending temperatures to 40C and above.
