Spain back on wildfire alert as blaze burns 4,500 hectares

Spanish authorities on Thursday said a large wildfire in the northeast would take days to control, sparking fresh alarm a week after the country's deadliest such disaster in recent history.

More than 400 firefighters backed by army reinforcements were battling the blaze in the municipality of Ores, which had burned 4,500 hectares (11,100 acres) in a sparsely populated part of the region of Aragon.

Several small villages had been evacuated with some damage to houses, said Roberto Bermudez de Castro, a senior member of the regional government.

"It will take days to control, to contain, it will be a complex fire," he said.

Footage shot from helicopters showed the fire eating away at vast expanses of forest and parched fields.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed "all my solidarity with the residents affected by the fire" on X, urging the population to exercise caution and obey the authorities.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme heat, which creates favourable conditions for the spread of wildfires and complicates firefighting efforts.

Peak temperatures of up to 40C have hit Aragon in recent days.

Spain is scarred by last week's ferocious wildfire in the southeastern province of Almeria that claimed 13 lives -- including seven Britons and an American -- and ravaged 7,000 hectares.

Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System.