As helicopters dump water over burning ridges and smoke billows across the mountains of northern Spain, residents from wildfire-stricken areas say they feel abandoned by the politicians meant to protect them.

A blaze “swept through those mountains, across those fresh, green valleys and they didn’t stop it?” said Jose Fernandez, 85.

He was speaking from an emergency shelter in Benavente where he took refuge after fleeing his nearby village, Vigo de Sanabria.

While praising the care he received at the shelter, run by the Red Cross, he gave the authorities “a zero” for their handling of the disaster.

Blazes that swept across Spain this month have killed four people and ravaged over 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) over two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (E

See Full Page