Spain fights to 'save lives' as wildfires rage near Madrid

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Saturday firefighters were working to "save lives" in the wildfires raging west of Madrid, warning of a "complex" struggle ahead with high winds expected.

The fires in the parched countryside have forced 35,000 people to flee their homes, the interior ministry said, in what officials have called the region's worst fire on record.

Thick grey smoke filled the sky west of the capital and the smell of burning reached the streets of central Madrid, itching residents' throats and forcing them to keep their windows closed.

"Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas," Sanchez told reporters in the village of Cenicientos in the fire zone.

"We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be."

In the town of Brunete, local mayor Mar Nicolas told AFP she was "very worried for the residents who are suffering from these terrible fires".

"Every year there are fires, but this one has been tremendous," she said. "It is a catastrophe."

Easing heat overnight offered a "window of opportunity this weekend to fight... this very serious fire", Sanchez said.

But the central government's delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martin, earlier warned that "erratic gusts" of wind were forecast.

Two separate wildfires in the Madrid region combined on Friday to form one huge blaze, which threatened to merge with a third near Avila in the neighbouring Castilla y Leon region.

The government delegation in Madrid said on X early Saturday that overnight conditions had "greatly aided the fight against the wildfires, which advanced little and decreased in intensity".

It listed 10 villages in the Madrid region that had been evacuated and three where residents had been ordered to stay at home.

The Madrid regional government said on X that more than 2,000 people were being looked after in 14 emergency evacuation centres.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters Friday there were nine other fires at various locations in Spain.

In the town of El Escorial northwest of Madrid, the historic monastery was shrouded in smoke, an AFP reporter saw.

So far this year fires have burned more than 168,000 hectares in Spain, according to the EU's European Forest Fire Information System.

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