Spain: Villages evacuated as wildfire burns 9,000 hectares

MADRID (AP) — Officials say some 9,000 hectares of wooded hill land in northwestern Spain have been burnt by a wildfire that forced the evacuation of more than 650 people from eight villages. The country is suffering an unusually early heatwave. Officials say the blaze in the Sierra de Culebra mountain range in the province of Zamora started Wednesday during a dry electric storm. Elsewhere in Spain, smaller wildfires were also raging in central Toledo province and in the northeastern provinces of Zaragoza and Lleida. Most of Spain was in high risk of forest fire Friday.