Wildfires driven by extreme heat and strong winds have forced the evacuation of more than 1,400 residents from villages in Spain’s Castile and Leon region, emergency officials said on Monday. Flames came within sight of Las Médulas, an ancient Roman gold-mining site listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage location, prompting authorities to clear the surrounding Carucedo area and several neighbouring communities. Regional environment chief Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones said 13 fires broke out over the weekend, four of which remained active. Temperatures close to 40 °C and gusts approaching 70 km/h generated ‘fire whirls’—tornado-like columns of flame—that destroyed homes and warehouses and briefly forced ground crews to retreat while thick smoke grounded water-bombing aircraft. About 800 of the evacuees came from six villages in the province of León, he added. Investigators believe lightning sparked some of the blazes, but Suárez-Quiñones said evidence points to arson in others, calling it “environmental terrorism.” Spain is in its second week of a heatwave that forecasters expect to persist through at least Thursday, keeping much of the country under high or extreme wildfire risk alerts.