Mayor of La Bañeza says winning El Gordo Christmas lottery ‘is something that has fallen from the heavens’
When the village of La Bañeza in Castilla y León was engulfed in one of the worst forest fires in Spanish history, the rain came too late to save it.
But now the Christmas lottery has showered its 10,000 inhabitants with hundreds of millions of euros.
Villagers in nearby Villablino, where five local men were killed in a mining accident last March, also bought the winning ticket and are in line for a multimillion-euro windfall.
The fires that raged out of control around La Bañeza in August destroyed 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) of woodland, killed three people and displaced a further 8,000.
