BRUSSELS, March 1, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on Feb. 16, 2016 shows night view of the old town of Avila in Spain. The city of Avila is around 100 km to the north-west of Spain's capital city of Madrid. Founded in the 11th century to protect the Spanish territories from the Moors, this 'City of Saints and Stones', the old town of Avila has kept its medieval austerity. (Xinhua/Gong Bing)

Fires in Spain's central Avila Province forced hundreds of people to flee their homes Sunday as parts of the country sweltered under crushing temperatures.

The fire, which has been burning in the city Navalcruz since Saturday morning, has been fed by winds of up to 70 kilometers an hour across the Iberian Peninsula.

It now has a perimeter of more than 40 kilometers and may already have burned more than 5,000 hectares, said Jose Angel Arranz, forestry director of the Castile and Leon region.

The authorities have already evacuated at least 600 people from five towns in the Avila district, near the Sierra de Gredos mountain range, and more than 500 firefighters are tackling the blaze with the help of specialized aircraft.

Around 80 kilometers to the south meanwhile, another fire, near El Raso, was still active. Like the one in Navalcruz, it is rated two on a three-point scale of seriousness.

The emergency services backed by 12 firefighting aircraft have also been fighting a blaze in Azuebar, eastern Spain, since Saturday, which has burned more than 500 hectares, the regional government in Valencia reported.

The blaze is threatening part of the Sierra de Espadan Natural Park.

On Twitter, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sent a message of solidarity to those forced to flee their homes.

Spain has been in the grip of a heat wave since Wednesday, and the fires burn as the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) recorded what appeared to be record temperatures.

Their provisional data registered a peak of 47.4 C  at around 5 pm in the southern city of Cordoba.

That is a 10th of a degree higher than the last record, also recorded there, in July 2017.

"If confirmed, it would be the highest record reliably measured in Spain," explained AEMET spokesperson Ruben del Campo. 

Although temperatures are expected to ease in the coming days, several parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalucia Murcia in the southeast, endured temperatures of over 45 C, Del Campo added.

That made this heat wave "probably one of the most intense experienced in Spain," he said.

Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that man-made global warming will bring higher temperatures and more extreme weather events across the world.

European countries such as Greece and Turkey have already experienced heat waves and wildfires in summer 2021.

AFP