The wildfire that engulfed Spain's Ávila region, northwest of the capital Madrid, is now considered the largest in the country's modern history, with around 50,000 hectares burned, the government said this week. With this incident, the three largest wildfires recorded nationwide have all occurred within the last two years, according to the latest data from the General Statistics on Forest Fires (EGIF), which date back to 1961. Firefighters continued working to contain the fires across Madrid and Ávila regions, which after a week had devastated around 50,000 hectares. It consumed 28,879 hectares of forest and 1,812 hectares of non-forested land, totalling 30,691 hectares. If only the burned forest area is considered, the 2004 fire in Minas de Riotinto (southern Spain) was more devastating, destroying 29,867 hectares of forest (29,946 hectares in total).