Madrid, Spain – Sally Chapman was watching the Wimbledon tennis championship on television when she noticed a “commotion” outside their home in Bedar, a tiny village in southern Spain, so her husband went outside to investigate. The Almeria fire was among the deadliest blazes in Spain in recent years. As it spread, other forest fires threatened parts of France and Greece. This means that just combating the recent fires near Madrid has cost up to $923m. ‘An absolute disaster’The Spanish government has not released a figure for the economic cost of fighting the recent fires around the capital.