The wildfire, fuelled by high temperatures, dry vegetation and strong winds, has forced thousands of people from their homes in communities west of Madrid, leaving residents uncertain whether they will have anything to return to.
Ecologio Cabrera, 86, struggled to comprehend the speed of the wildfire that forced him to flee his village west of the Spanish capital.
"If you don't run from it and you try to face it, it devours you," he told AFP in a sports hall in the village of Vilamanta, where hundreds of evacuees have sought refuge.
Cabrera recalled firefighters racing through his neighbourhood in Aldea del Fresno where he has lived for nearly three decades, ordering everyone to leave immediately.
The family fought to save their home by spraying it continuously with garden hoses until firefighters appeared, he said.
