Ordered to flee their homes as wildfires raged nearby, Spanish villagers often only had minutes to seize what they could: most pets were banned and some had no chance to grab their medicine.
"Everyone had to get out of the village quickly -- it was a critical situation and people were scared," Olga Congacha, 50, told AFP on a highway where police had closed off access to her home commune, Robledo de Chavela.
"My husband and I left with all that we could grab -- our important documents and some clothes."
Officers let her return briefly to her home Sunday to get medicine that she needed ahead of an operation.
She found her house covered in ash.
