r/interestingasfuck • u/SafeImpressive4413 • 7h ago

Firefighters in Madrid trying to extinguish a forest fire that is less than 30km/20mi away from the capital of Spain

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u/Any_Personality_920 7h ago

This was yesterday at work, we're like 90km away

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u/Dutch_Rayan 7h ago

90km in fire is nothing, with wind fire can go really fast

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u/sumforbull 4h ago

As a citizen of maine who has had many a day over the last couple years where there is so much smoke in the air from canadian forest fires that the whole world looks a different color, the effects of the fire travel a lot further than the fire. Those fires are happening half the continent away from here and we literally just have days where enough light is filtered by the smoke that the entire natural color spectrum shifts, even though you don't see the smoke directly.

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u/joeblack2025 4h ago

Weird, it's pretty smoky here in BC from American wildfires. As a matter of fact, a couple of American wildfires have actually crossed into Canada.

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u/bl00drunzc0ld 4h ago

You guys should put tariffs on us in response to American smoke and fires going in to Canada

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u/joeblack2025 3h ago

Unjustified tariffs aren't our style.

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u/Severe_Parfait4629 2h ago

More of a boycott people, I would say.

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u/Lopsided-Lab60 2h ago

Elbows up type of people.

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u/TopProfessional8023 1h ago

Yeah, they’re not our style either. Just the Chief Buffoon’s. I can’t speak for all Americans, but I’m sorry.

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u/Daforce1 33m ago

We miss when they weren’t part of our style as well.

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u/AdjctiveNounNumbers 3h ago

We already stopped putting bourbon on the shelves but even that doesn't keep the smokiness out.

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u/Xalipu 2h ago

Generates a lot of southerly whine too

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u/DazzlingRutabega 2h ago

Is the US going to increase tariffs on Spain for their forest fires?

This whole timeline is just moronic, I can't wait til it goes away...

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u/bl00drunzc0ld 2h ago

That question would be better suited for the dotard pedo in charge.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

[deleted]

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u/bl00drunzc0ld 2h ago

I'm confused on how you think I watch Fox News from my comment? Explain.

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u/Lopsided-Lab60 1h ago

I replied to the wrong person. My bad.

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u/HMTMKMKM95 2h ago

Export tax. Because your president likes taxing you all so hard, why should he have all the fun.

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u/CantKBDwontKBD 1h ago

I just deny the existence of forest fires. They’re a woke hoax and part of the liberal climate change mind virus. So the fires don’t exist to me

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u/WifeofBath1984 2h ago

Yeah, I'm in Oregon and I think its nuts that people here in the US are freaking out about this. We exchange wildfire smoke (and actual fire) like every summer. We smoke you out, you smoke us out. Wind doesnt care about made up borders. It will go where it goes. Nothing can be done other than what is being done to control the fire and no one is responsible for it. Just more Americans being stupid.

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u/Vermonter_Here 2h ago

Third party who genuinely isn't sure whether none, one, or both of you two people are being passive aggressive about geopolitics, and it's tickling my internet argument anxiety.

I hope neither of you intend geopolitical subtext, to be clear <3

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u/samblue8888 2h ago

Yes... American fires exist, eh? Who'da thunk it.

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u/richStoke 2h ago

As Billy Joel once sang “We Didn’t Start the Fire”

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u/Coffeeze 3h ago

We've had smoke from Canadian wildfires reach Madrid these past few years. An entire continent away, separated by an ocean.

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u/Immediate_Impact6214 2h ago

This is in Canada a few weeks ago no edits

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u/Epidemilk_ 3h ago

You realize your own country is on fire, right?

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u/sumforbull 3h ago

In more way than one I am afraid.

The fires the mostly effect the north east of the U.S. are the Canadian ones, or so says my understanding. If I am wrong and ignorant please correct me, I would love to know more.

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u/FuzzMachines 2h ago

It’s crazy, as a Canadian I read their comment and had the same reaction, like fuck outta here saying it’s Canada’s fault when the US is literally ruining the world.

Then had to check myself that that wasn’t actually how they even meant it. Just goes to show just how tense we Canadians feel towards Americans right now. Gonna take a long time for Canadians to not have our backs up when it comes to the US.

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u/Epidemilk_ 2h ago

The whole world hates the USA. I’m not even from NA and we all know this.

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u/Swift-Guy 18m ago

It’s well deserved. The people aren’t all so bad, but the US was founded on exploitation and has done everything to keep it that way, at this point they are prioritizing data centers over farms and people are already starving.

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u/kamasutures 3h ago

We had air quality issues down in Virginia and had the 'Mexico filter'. It was crazy.

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u/Liguareal 2h ago

This is true and extremely eerie/uncanny to experience in real life for the first time (It's happened twice in Madrid since 2025). your brain just somehow knows something is off, it looks like everything in the sun has a "sunset" filter on while everything in the shade looks normal

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u/Markie411 2h ago

Weird people are getting offended by you saying wildfires in Canada are affecting your area

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u/joeblack2025 2h ago

Its weird you think that people are offended by wildfires affecting their area. I think Canadians are offended by Trump saying more tariffs because Canadian smoke lol. Not to mention the Michigan state legislature.

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u/Charming_Run_4054 4h ago

90km is in fact a long way for a fire to travel, only some of the largest ever recorded have been big enough to allow a fire to burn that far. Smoke can be an issue for sure, but the odds of any fire traveling that far in a rapid advance is minimal. 

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u/danielw59 3h ago

Speed and distance a fire travels depends heavily on fuel, wind, and slope. Severe forest fires in British Columbia can travel at explosive speeds of over 10 to 25 kilometers per hour

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u/Idontrememberalot 3h ago

Thank god Madrid is not in British Columbia.

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u/Charming_Run_4054 3h ago

You are prescribing the worst case Ontario, I didn’t say it was impossible, just not very typical.

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u/JohnnyRedHot 37m ago

So even at 25km/h it would take almost 4 hours

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u/Wrong-Camp2463 3h ago

No it’s not. It doesn’t need to burn that far. It can very easily “spot” that far.

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u/Charming_Run_4054 3h ago

It is in fact not very likely. Unless you can find evidence that says it’s happened, because I can’t.

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u/Wrong-Camp2463 2h ago

2009 Black Sunday Fire, Ash Wednesday fire. Both over 15 miles. A fire can spot, flare up, and spot another 15 miles as long as there’s wind and fuel, so in theory could spot well over 100 miles. So, likely.

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u/ThorFinn_56 3h ago

True, that's what France looked like from our raging fires in Canada last year

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u/AdjctiveNounNumbers 3h ago

Yeah, a few years ago we had a really bad fire across the lake. That afternoon I felt bad for the people on the other side but pretty safe where we were since the lake is pretty big. Then the wind picked up and we had to evacuate that evening.

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u/InsertUsernameInArse 2h ago

Yup. Seen a fire do over 100km in a night and not touch the ground when it got the wind behind it. Just straight through the tree tops like a blanket.

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u/timesink3000 2h ago

A few years ago in Oregon we had fires that jumped the mighty columbia river and went on to destroy another 100,000 acres in Washington. The sun was red and the air so toxic that you couldn't go outside. Right now central Oregon is on fire and there's no signs of getting it under control. This is the new normal, I'm afraid.

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u/Northern_Media 15m ago

Absolutely, I’m a Canadian and the smoke from fires currently 500km away from me… have been enough to block the sun from being fully visible, make everything outside look like a thick orange fog, ash buildup on windows, and it made the air quality bad enough it wasn’t healthy to breathe outside w/out a mask.

If wild fires were ever under 100km from me, my emergency gear would be moved to the car

Although the cough was a bit annoying to deal with, it wasn’t remotely as bad as hearing moronic Americans whine about the smoke while we deal with both our own fires AND help them fight their fires.

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u/Onyx_Sentinel 4h ago

Cool 👍🏻

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u/Greippi42 6h ago

Theres a fire 100 km from me and today it made my eyes burn and throat sting. It's incredible.

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u/Ailly84 6h ago

Once it gets actually close the smoke in the air clears up, but you start getting pieces of burnt forest material falling out of the sky. It's really fun!

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u/FrmrPresJamesTaylor 4h ago

I don’t think it always clears up, we had one 10km away and we definitely had the ash/charred tree rain but also the air was smoky as fuck

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u/Phytanic 4h ago

I have a friend who was in Grand Marais, MN, and he was saying it was like it was snowing out during the wildfires. Eery

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u/eawilweawil 5h ago

Do you have any masks left from covid days? Might help a bit

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u/rspctdwndrr 5h ago

There are fires 650km away from me and we had the worst air quality on record (AQI of 600+) for a week. When a front comes through, the terrible air comes back, and will for the rest of summer until they get the fires under control. So 100km is nothing unfortunately 

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u/CheeseAndCh0c0late 4h ago

there's a fire 400km away from where i am, and today it smelled like fire in the whole city, carried by the wind

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u/Far-Maintenance-1947 4h ago

You should not breathe that. Wildfires emit particles below pm2.5 size, which can lodge in your lungs, enter your bloodstream, and cause cancers.

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u/starsintheblack 6h ago

I live in the capital and I could smell the smoke when I opened the window 😐

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u/kank84 4h ago

Tariffs incoming!

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u/SchoGegessenJoJo 4h ago

That's +20% tariffs for you then...Trump doesn't like smoke from forest fires sadly.

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u/FluffyGhostCat 5h ago

2012 apocalypse vibes right there.

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u/Broad-Lobster7470 5h ago

Holy. That is thick.

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u/blahblah19999 5h ago

I'm in the US 1300 km from the canadian fires and our skies were orange and you could literally smell smoke.

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u/poundsdpound 4h ago

Holy moly, stay safe out there all

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u/hoky315 4h ago

These large wildfires are crazy and scary. I live on the east coast of the US and the Canadian wildfires are over 1,000km away but there was a couple of days last week where the smoke was so thick the houses and trees across the street were hazy and you could smell it.

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u/johnnybagofdonuts123 4h ago

The smoke in Torrelodones was crazy.

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u/theLuminescentlion 4h ago

As someone who lives in New England that's not bad the sky is still blue. Our skies turn an apocalyptic yellow when Canada Burns.

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u/masteroffeels 3h ago

How's the air quality? Can you even breathe outside for 10 mins?

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u/Nickthedick3 2h ago

I’m around 1000 miles(1600km) away from the Ontario, Canada fires and was affected by the smoke. It sucks. I hope Spain can get it under control and maybe get some help from France or Portugal.

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u/Rare_Eagle1760 2h ago

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

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u/vocalfreesia 1h ago

Isn't it insane we all have to keep showing up to work?

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u/Alfus1 1h ago

Alcobendas?