Fermoselle wildfire stabilises, most of 800 evacuees return home in Zamora, Spain

Outbreak and initial chaos

On Wednesday 29 July at 13:05, a forest fire ignited near Fermoselle in Zamora's Arribes del Duero natural park. Within half an hour it was declared a level 2 severity (IGR 2), indicating serious risk to life and property. The cause remains under investigation but officials have pointed to a possible negligent act. By evening, the fire had spread rapidly through the dry landscape, fanned by shifting winds, forcing the evacuation of 14 hamlets and the confinement of Fermoselle and Fariza, affecting more than 2,300 people in total.

The fire has been complicated, intense, with changing weather patterns, and this has forced us to adapt strategies for combating it on several occasions.

The regional government of Castilla y León deployed air and ground resources, joined by the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) with 99 soldiers and 35 vehicles, Guardia Civil, and brigades from several autonomous communities.

Firefighting and the struggle to contain

For two days, the blaze chewed through the canyons and scrubland of the Duero river canyon, reaching an estimated 11,000 hectares with a perimeter of about 75 kilometres. The rugged terrain, with steep drops into the river gorge along the Portuguese border, made liquidating the fire from the ground extremely difficult. On Thursday, strong wind gusts thwarted aerial drops and allowed the fire to advance toward the village of Fariza, though firefighters managed to halt it before it entered the settlement.

The topography does not allow a liquidation that secures the flank. It is easy for it to continue progressing.

Despite the challenges, overnight work focused on consolidating the perimeter. By Friday morning, the situation had improved significantly, with only small hotspots remaining active, mostly in the most inaccessible parts of the Arribes, according to Mariano Rodríguez, head of the provincial environment department.

Evacuees return

The improving outlook allowed authorities to begin lifting restrictions. Over the course of Friday, the evacuees from 12 of the 14 evacuated hamlets were permitted to return home, and confinements in Fermoselle and Fariza were lifted. By evening, only the hamlets of Mámoles and Pinilla remained under evacuation, due to the difficulty of ground access in those forested areas. All roads closed earlier were reopened except those leading to the two remaining evacuated zones, and power supply was restored. More than 800 residents who had spent two nights in sports halls and care homes were able to go back.

There is still danger and there are active foci.

The operation now shifts to liquidating those hotspots and preventing reactivations. Forty forest firefighters from Bosnia are set to join the effort, reinforcing the national and regional teams.

Political echoes in Castilla y León

The Fermoselle blaze is the latest in a string of catastrophic wildfires that have plagued Castilla y León in recent years, all under the presidency of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP). The Burgohondo fire in Ávila, which has scorched about 50,000 hectares this week, is now the largest on record for Spain. In 2021, 22,000 hectares burned in Navalacruz; in 2022, two fires in the Sierra de la Culebra consumed nearly 60,000 hectares and killed four people; and in 2025, over 100,000 hectares were charred, with five dead. Mañueco, who in 2018 called maintaining a year-round firefighting operation absurd and wasteful, has kept a low profile during this crisis while his Madrid counterpart and the prime minister dominated headlines over an emergency declaration for the national-level fires. The regional government was re-elected in March, partly on swift cash handouts to fire victims, and the new environment councillor has avoided public controversy.