Extreme heat and strong winds in Spain caused fire balls on Monday night, as a hellish blaze fuelled by strong winds during Europe’s latest heatwave burned several houses and forced thousands to flee.

At least 180 people were evacuated overnight from Tres Cantos, an affluent suburb northeast of Madrid, after wildfires tore through homes and farmland.

A man who had been taken by helicopter to the La Paz hospital after suffering burns on 98 percent of his body, later died, the Community of Madrid said this morning.

In a short period of time, the fire ripped through 1,000 hectares of land, tearing down an equestrian centre and killing 27 horses.

Kings College, a prestigious British private school, is also understood to have suffered some damage, and a donkey shelter burned down. 

Due to the speed of winds, the flames quickly spread and reached the Norman pharmaceutical laboratories, where sounds of explosions were reportedly heard. 

‘In barely 40 minutes, the fire advanced six kilometres,’ Carlos Novillo, Madrid’s regional environment chief, told reporters. 

The inferno then spread to the adjacent affluent suburbs of Fuente del Fresno and Soto de Viñuelas, where residents remained on evacuation alerts overnight.

Footage shared on social media showed how flames spread through forested areas, while thick smoke billowed into the sky. 

Other videos showed how strong winds pushed blazes across fields as fire services rushed to contain the inferno.

Firefighters managed to contain the wildfire near the Spanish capital by Tuesday morning thanks to favourable overnight conditions, regional authorities said.

Elsewhere in Spain, wildfires sparked by infernal temperatures in the north of the country prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people near a UNESCO-listed national park. 

About 800 people were told to abandon their homes in half a dozen villages in the north of the Castile and Leon region, where several wildfires were raging. 

Residents of the town of Congosta were spraying houses, trees and pavement with their garden hoses to fend off the flames that devoured at least two buildings, while police told them to prepare for evacuation.

The smoke was too thick for firefighting aircraft to deploy.

‘There are already several houses that have burned down, we don’t know what to do anymore. We’re completely defenceless and have been abandoned,’ said Congosta resident Evangelina Peral Delgado, 70.

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