Displaced from wildfires in Spain share their stories of uncertainty and narrow escapes

VILLAVICIOSA DE ODÓN, Spain (AP) — Elvira Menéndez knows how lucky she is that her house is not a charred ruin like so many others in Spain and France devastated by deadly wildfires.

But the 79-year-old retiree can’t help but worry for another family that, like her, fled the raging inferno.

“They have been left with nothing,” said about a young family that lives down her son’s street. “The house has completely burned down, and they have three children.”

The wildfires that have raged out of control in recent days in three provinces in central Spain have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares and forced nearly 90,000 people to flee their homes. In the southwest of France, more than 250,000 people have fled their homes as the fire rages through the wine region of Bordeaux.

Survivors face an uncertain future

For the hundreds of thousands of people in this situation, the question is the same: What will they find when they’re finally allowed to go home, or to what’s left of it?

With no word on when she’ll be able to return to Chapinería, her hometown west of the Spanish capital of Madrid, Menéndez will spend her third night on Sunday at the makeshift shelter set up in a sports complex in Villaviciosa de Odón, a 40-minute drive from the home she was forced to leave as the blaze neared.

“At least we’re all together,” said Menéndez, who is at the shelter with her family and their dog.

On Friday afternoon, two major fires near Madrid merged into a single, rapidly spreading blaze. It later combined with another that was already burning in Ávila, north of the capital. This forced the government to declare a national fire emergency for the first time. Since then, the flames have also spread to Toledo, a province southwest. In all, the flames have scorched 77,000 hectares in the central part of the country alone.

Menéndez’s anguish was shared by Rocío Domínguez, who fled her house with only the clothes on her back. “All the clothes, all the memories, everything, everything, everything,” were left behind, she told The Associated Press.

“The only thing I had time to grab was a kit I have for the dogs,” Domínguez added, surrounded by her two beloved pets. Everything else she has with her now — from the clothes she wears to her food and toiletries — she received at the shelter.

For many, it was a scene ‘like the apocalypse’

At the evacuation center, where cots have been set up for about 200 people, Domínguez still has the terrifying memory of their escape fresh in her mind.

“It was madness with cars going up and down, traffic jams in the village streets as people tried to get out. It looked like the apocalypse,” told Domínguez, 35 years old and unemployed, who is with her parents and siblings. “You couldn’t see anything.”

“Everything was covered in ash,” she added. “You could see all the burned animals.”

Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia heard more of those personal testimonies on Sunday as the royals visited another shelter in Villamartín, about 45 kilometers west of Madrid.

And those stories may not be the last — Spain's Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, later noted that “more evacuations are still expected” in that area.

Queen Letizia told reporters after meeting with the survivors that it was important "to hear how they feel and how they recount their hasty departure from their home. How they have felt the sadness they describe, the anguish, the uncertainty, and those questions they leave hanging in the air,.

Wildfire brought tragedy on the heels of Spain's World Cup

The wildfires have significantly shifted the mood in the country, where just a week ago huge crowds of people took to the streets to celebrate their second FIFA World Cup triumph.

As the echoes of those celebrations fade, head coach Luis de la Fuente — one of the driving forces behind the historic victory over Argentina in the final in New Jersey — visited those affected by the fires at a sports center in Las Rozas.

The Spanish Football Federation, which has its headquarters in the same city, has offered the facilities where the newly crowned world champions usually train for the vulnerable families who have been forced to evacuate from their homes.

The coach said all of Spain is rallying for the wildfire survivors.

“All of Spain is watching over them,” De la Fuente said in remarks to the national public broadcaster, TVE. “They have the support of the entire country, the same support we have when we play soccer. It’s exactly the same.”

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Medrano reported from Madrid.