Madrid: Spain announced gradual improvement in efforts to contain the wildfires that swept through vast areas in the country, destroying more than 358,000 hectares of land over the past 15 days, Spain's State TV said Sunday. The National Emergency Centre reported that 15 wildfires are still active, including 14 major ones in the northwestern regions, in addition to nine other fires that are under control but efforts continue to fully extinguish them.
According to Kuwait News Agency, head of the country's civil protection and emergencies service, Virginia Barcones, stated that the remaining fires are still very treacherous, and "we will need a final push to be done with this horrible situation." Spanish authorities have arrested 43 people and opened investigations with 133 others since the beginning of last June until last night, on suspicion of involvement in the causes of numerous wildfires that left five people dead in August, Barcones added.
The Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) mentioned that the wildfires broke out during a 16-day heatwave, the most intense recorded since 1961.