King Felipe VI praises coordination “example” in fighting fires

O monarch also called for a reflection on the future to realize “what can be done better” in periods when there are no fires and thanked countries that are providing means to help fight the flames.

Accompanied by Queen Letizia, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Mayor of Villamanta, Mariano Núñez, Felipe VI visited the sports pavilion of this locality, which welcomes about 200 people removed from their homes due to the active fire in the western mountains of the Madrid region.

“Some are four days away from home. Some have lost many of their possessions. Together, we lost an incalculable natural heritage”, he said.

After pointing out that the outbreaks are still very active and “high risk”, Felipe VI told journalists that there are “some positive signs in the evolution” of the situation and the work that is being developed by all the mobilized means.

The king thanked the work of all emergency services, starting with the Emergency Military Unit (UME), which leads the operation after the declaration of the national emergency, but also the elements of Civil Protection, Fire Department, National Police, Civil Guard and volunteers.

“ Everyone is doing a spectacular, professional, dedicated and sacrificed work, which should be thanked and praised”, he considered.

Felipe VI also stressed that coordination between all administrations is being “example”, considering that this cooperation conveys “a good message”, because “united together it is possible to face any risk”.

The monarch also said that “all possible means”, human and material, are being used to cope with the situation.

It also called on the population to “follow the authorities’ indications” and to collaborate “as far as possible”, contributing, “within each person’s responsibility”, to “the emergency lasts as long as possible and to cause the least amount of damage”.

Felipe VI stressed that the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism is functioning and considered that “it will probably be necessary to strengthen it even further”, taking into account the risk situation experienced simultaneously by Spain and France. “This effort needs to be shared,” he said.

On the other hand, Queen Letizia considered that, at this moment, “it makes sense to listen attentively to the residents to know how they feel, how was this hasty departure from home, beyond the sadness, anguish and uncertainty they transmit”.

Spain has declared the national emergency situation in the provinces of Madrid, Ávila and Toledo because of forest fires, which have already confined or removed more than 90,000 people from their homes since Thursday.

In addition to these fires in Avila, Madrid and Toledo – which are being fought as one, because they are in neighboring territories. The Spanish authorities are warning of the development in the last hours of a fire in Castellón, in the region of Valencia, in the east of the country, which has already led to withdraw from the house or confine 15,000 people.

According to the Spanish Government, more than 150,000 hectares have been burned this year in the country and there have been 32 large forest fires since January, multiplying six times the numbers of the same period of 2025.

Underlining these figures, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has again defended and asked, as he has done in the last year, for a “state pact against climate change”.