Aragon wildfire in Castillonroy consumes 420 hectares

A forest fire broke out on Wednesday evening in Castillonroy, a municipality in the Aragon region of Spain, and within hours had burned around 420 hectares – roughly 60% forest and the remainder agricultural land. The blaze spread rapidly due to temperatures near 40 °C, low humidity and winds up to 45 km/h.

The regional government activated the Special Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fires at operational level 2, deploying more than 200 responders from the Aragon authorities, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME) and local fire services. Resources included eight ground crews with autobombas, five helitruck brigades, several helicopters, two amphibious aircraft and a bulldozer, while farmers assisted by creating firebreaks with their tractors. About 800 residents of the nearby village of Albelda were confined to their homes for roughly twelve hours; the N‑230 road was reopened, but the A‑140 remained closed for emergency traffic.

Councillor Roberto Bermúdez de Castro described the fire’s “very complicated” evolution as “rapidísima” and warned that the heat wave would continue across Aragon, noting the lack of European funds for fire fighting this summer.