"In general, the weather forecast is favourable for extinguishing the fires, and today we have an opportunity to make significant progress," said the director of the Spanish Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones, at a press conference in Madrid.

In the last 24 hours, the number of active fires decreased, but there are still 18 of the highest severity (classified as level 2 on a scale that in Spain goes up to 4).

Eight of these are being handled by teams from the Military Emergency Unit (UME), a special force of the Spanish Armed Forces that responds to emergency and catastrophic situations such as fires, floods, or earthquakes.

According to Virginia Barcones, these eight fires, which are still "very compromised," are evolving "slower or more adversely" and are mostly located in the regions of Galicia, Castile and León, and Extremadura, all in northwestern and western Spain and on the border with Portugal.

The director of Spanish Civil Protection added that reignitions are also among the biggest concerns at this time, and that there have been "several situations in which fires are re-igniting" in areas previously considered controlled or extinguished.

The improvement in the fire situation in Spain also allowed high-speed train connections between Madrid and Galicia, which had been cut for a week due to the fires, to resume normal service today.

In Galicia, according to autonomous government authorities, six active level 2 fires were still burning today in the province of Ourense, including the Larouco fire, which has already burned more than 30,000 hectares and is already considered the largest fire in the region's history. In Extremadura, the president of the regional government, María Guardiola, said today that she expects to have "good news" by late afternoon about the fire in Jarilla, Cáceres, revealing that it is close to being controlled after burning for ten days and burning around 16,800 hectares.

Meanwhile, in Castile and León, eight level 2 fires remain, and it continues to be the region with the most active fires.

Spain has been facing a wave of large fires in the northwest and west of the country for weeks, with the area burned this year approaching 400,000 hectares, an annual record, according to still provisional data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).