Lionel Messi donated 80,000 euros for the restoration of the Sierra Oeste area following massive forest fires in the Madrid community. This was reported on Tuesday by the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Díaz Ayuso publicly thanked the Argentine footballer for his contribution. “Leo Messi donated 80,000 euros for the restoration of Sierra Oeste in Madrid. I want to thank him and say that the people of Madrid hope to meet him soon to express their gratitude with applause,” the official wrote on her X account.
Scale of destructive fires in Spain
The area in Spain devastated by fire has reached its highest levels in the last two decades. In just two weeks, massive fires have scorched a record area across Spain and France, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and pushing rescue services to their limits as they battled uncontrollable outbreaks.
The fires prompted mass evacuations and threatened regions near major cities such as Madrid and Valencia. One of the main fire fronts was concentrated in the province of Ávila, where the largest fire in the country’s recent history occurred. There, the fire destroyed approximately 50,000 hectares, devastating homes, campsites, recreational facilities, and vast forest areas.
The fire later spread to Toledo, while another significant front remained active in the province of Castellón in eastern Spain. Overall, the fires that swept through central Spain have already ravaged about 77,000 hectares, forcing around 90,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Experts attributed the intensity of the fires to a combination of exceptional factors. Western Europe experienced a very rainy spring, which led to unusual growth of grass and shrub vegetation. However, the extreme temperatures recorded in May and June quickly dried out this vegetation, turning it into a vast amount of flammable fuel.
Source: La Nación
