Madrid, Spain – Two major wildfires merged west of Madrid on Friday, where some residents could smell smoke drifting in from blazes burning out of control near the Spanish capital.

Strong winds were expected to hamper efforts to contain the wildfires, which authorities said were the worst in the region’s history and had forced the evacuation and confinement of 19,000 people so far.

“The smoke was incredibly thick. You couldn’t breathe,” Jose Cobos, who fled his home with his wife and three dogs, told private broadcaster Antena 3.

Only emergency vehicles were allowed on roads near the blaze, while police set up checkpoints to prevent unauthorised access, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Two of the three wind-fuelled wildfires burning west of Madrid had merged into a single blaze, regional emergency services wrote on X.

Officials had earlier said the main priority for firefighters was to prevent the fires’ “convergence”.

From the Temple of Debod park, on the western edge of central Madrid overlooking the city’s outskirts, a thick plume of grey smoke could be seen rising above the horizon as wildfires burnt about 60 kilometres (40 miles) away.

Dora Fernandez, a 57-year-old nurse walking her dog in the park, said she was not worried despite the scale of the blaze.

“It’s far from here,” she said, adding firefighters “know how to stop it”.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters strong winds, low humidity, and high temperatures were complicating the fight against the flames.

Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s emergency management chief, said weather conditions were “expected to improve” overnight, with cooler temperatures and higher humidity forecast for Saturday.

Spain’s government declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and neighbouring Avila province late Thursday, allowing additional resources to be deployed more quickly and placing the Military Emergency Unit (UME) in charge of coordinating the response.

‘Catastrophic’

At least 19,000 people in the Madrid region have been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors due to wildfires that have become the worst in the region’s history, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said.

“The situation is completely unusual and catastrophic,” she told reporters, adding that the priority was “to save lives”.

More than 430 elderly people and people with disabilities from five care homes were among the evacuated, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.

Television images showed Guardia Civil police officers wearing face masks helping elderly residents in wheelchairs board buses as care homes were evacuated.

The largest evacuation operation took place in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, with most of the 178 residents at the private Lopez Rumayor care home evacuated to the municipal sports hall.

Spain has seen a series of blazes in recent days as a heatwave and dry conditions have heightened the risk of fast-moving fires, particularly in scrubland areas where dry vegetation has fuelled the flames.

The country’s largest active wildfire is burning in the province of Guadalajara, around 100 kilometres north of Madrid, where it has scorched about 32,000 hectares over the past week.

“We are living through a dramatic situation, not only in various Spanish provinces but also in regions of neighbouring countries,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X, saying the government “has deployed all available resources”.

Spain recorded its worst wildfire season in recent history in 2025, when more than 393,000 hectares were destroyed by fire, according to EFFIS.

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