Wildfires in Castellón and Zamora Stabilize in Spain
The wildfires in Vall d'Uixó (Castellón) and Fermoselle (Zamora) have stabilized in Spain, allowing the progressive return of evacuees to their homes.
The two major wildfires that kept much of Spain on edge in recent days stabilized on Friday, July 31, 2026: the one in Vall d’Uixó, in Castellón, and the one in Fermoselle, in Zamora. Both fires, which forced the evacuation of thousands and confined many more, began to give way to a progressive return of residents to their homes after several days of intense work by firefighting services.
Seven days of fire in Vall d’Uixó
The Castellón fire had broken out on Saturday, July 25, in the municipality of Vall d’Uixó and, after seven days active, left a toll of 9,568 hectares burned within a perimeter of 89 kilometers. The Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) confirmed that all evacuees from this fire can now return to their homes, including residents of Artana and Eslida, the last municipalities to regain normalcy after being among the hardest hit by the flames.
More than 1,200 professionals worked to contain the fire, backed by more than 30 aerial assets, in a deployment that reflected the scale of the operation needed to halt the fire’s advance in an area with especially complex terrain.
A “critical night” before stabilization
The fire’s operations director, Antonio Rodrigo, had warned just one day earlier that it would be necessary to wait an additional 48 hours to assess the fire’s evolution before even considering its stabilization, after describing the previous day as a “critical night” for the operation.
Similarly, the director of the Advanced Command Post (PMA), Fernando Kindelán, described the scenario faced by the teams as “very complex,” with dense forest mass, broken terrain, and topography that hindered ground access. According to his explanation, the absence of wind was a favorable factor during much of the operation, although smoke concentration at certain moments hampered the work of aerial assets, forcing pauses in firefighting efforts.
Fermoselle, between farmland and the Portuguese border
Hundreds of kilometers away, in Zamora, the fire declared in Fermoselle — an eminently agricultural and livestock area located very close to the border with Portugal — also managed to stabilize within its perimeter after two days of fire that authorities described as “complicated, intense, and with changing weather aspects.”
The stabilization allowed the lifting of confinement orders in Fermoselle and Fariza, as well as the evacuations affecting twelve of the fourteen towns evacuated by the flames. Mámoles and Pinilla de Fermoselle were the last two settlements to regain normalcy, thus closing an episode that at its most critical moment displaced about a thousand residents and confined 1,500 people to their homes.
The elderly of Muga de Sayago, among the most affected
One of the episodes that best illustrates the human impact of the Fermoselle fire was the preventive transfer of residents from the Muga de Sayago nursing home, who had to be evacuated to the Zamora capital as the flames advanced. Such operations, focused on the most vulnerable population, were part of the emergency deployment that remained active while the fire was unchecked.
A summer marked by major wildfires
The fires in Castellón and Zamora add to an especially tough wildfire season for Spain. The fires in Ávila and Madrid, the largest recorded in the country this summer, scorched nearly 70,000 hectares combined — 50,000 in Ávila alone — before being declared “technically stabilized” by Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska a few days earlier.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez himself visited the areas affected by the Ávila fire, the largest of the season, while the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, reported that the fire in the western Madrid mountains burned 27,000 hectares and destroyed one hundred homes, a toll that demonstrates the magnitude of the material damage caused by this summer’s wave of wildfires.
What lies ahead
With the Castellón and Zamora perimeters now stabilized, the work of emergency teams shifts to mop-up and surveillance efforts, essential to prevent reactivations in still-hot areas. In parallel, regional and local administrations must begin assessing material and environmental damage, a process that in episodes of this magnitude typically extends over several weeks and is key to activating aid for residents and farmers affected by the passage of the flames.