Cyprus gets help from other countries to battle huge wildfire that has killed 2

SOUNI, Cyprus (AP) — Aircraft from Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Spain were on their way Thursday to help battle a huge wildfire in Cyprus that has claimed the lives of two people.

Police were investigating reports that arsonists were to blame for the flames, which have scorched more than 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) of forested hillsides in one of the worst such blazes in recent memory.

“We've been handling an unprecedented situation since yesterday, (Wednesday),” Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides told reporters. “There's never been anything like this before in Cyprus.”

The fire, which appeared to have died down overnight, flared up again Thursday along several fronts. More than 250 firefighters, 75 engines and 14 aircraft were working to contain the flames, government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis said.

Very strong winds, high temperatures and very arid conditions after three winters of minimal rainfall created a perfect storm at the wildfire's peak late Wednesday, Letymbiotis said. Fire crews struggled to contain the flames in difficult, hilly terrain.

The blaze near the winemaking village of Omodos was particularly difficult to battle, Fire Service spokesman Andreas Kettis said.

Christodoulides said that there were positive signs that the fire appeared to be winding down, but he couldn't say that it's under control yet. He reaffirmed a government pledge to help people who lost their livelihood, and property owners to rebuild their gutted homes.

Antonis Christou, a 67-year-old resident of the village of Kantou, described how the entire hillside and valley below his home was aflame.

“I cried, honestly I cried, because the world was on fire,” he said.

“Two fire engines came and if they hadn’t come, the fire would have swept through the village,” he said, describing scenes of “pandemonium” at a village dog shelter where owners rushed to evacuate the animals, as well as bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads leading away from the fire fronts.

Letymbiotis said that four Jordanian fixed-wing aircraft and two Egyptian helicopters are already on the island while two planes from Israel, a pair from Spain and two more from Lebanon would be arriving to assist in firefighting efforts. The Israeli planes could be used at nighttime because they're equipped to do so, Christodoulides said. Greece is also dispatching 26 elite firefighters to Cyprus.

Police were investigating reports that the fire, which began around noon Wednesday, was the work of arsonists, according to the government spokesman.

Egyptian Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi, who is visiting Cyprus, said that two “specialized helicopters” would be arriving in Cyprus later Thursday to demonstrate that his country is a “strategic, reliable partner” to Cyprus.

Police were still trying to identify the charred remains of two people who were found inside a burned-out car on the shoulder of the main Monagri-Alassa road. Police initially reported the discovery of one body late Wednesday, but a more thorough search of the gutted vehicle found a second body.

“The loss of two compatriots was grave,” Christodoulides said. “But at the same time, those who were on the front lines were aware that there was a real danger that more of our compatriots could've been lost.”

Health officials said seven people are being treated in three hospitals for burns and smoke inhalation.

Letymbiotis deflected criticism by some residents, saying that fire crews had responded quickly to calls for help and that all firefighting protocols had been activated from the first instance. Many people refused to leave their homes, but authorities managed to evacuate them.

Meanwhile, the Cyprus Red Cross and other organizations offered help to dozens of people who lost homes. Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said that 100 people who were evacuated from fire-hit communities were being hosted in temporary shelters.

Cyprus' Interior Ministry urged the evacuation of all camping grounds on the Troodos mountain range as a precaution.

The fire on Wednesday had forced the evacuation of at least 14 villages as media reports showed gutted homes smoldering. In the village of Lofou, at least 20 homes were destroyed as fires threatened a group of stranded evacuees trying to flee.

Police continued to block road access to the fire-afflicted communities.

Residents try to extinguish the blazes in Omodos village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Burned houses are seen in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Resident Antonis Christou looks at a burned area in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A firefighter along with her colleagues try to extinguish a fire in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A helicopter drops water over a burned forest in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Flames burn near a house in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A man speaking on his cellphone walks through a burned area in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A British aircraft drops retardant liquid on the blazes in Omodos village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Residents try to extinguish the blazes in Omodos village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Burned houses are seen in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Resident Antonis Christou looks at a burned area in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A firefighter along with her colleagues try to extinguish a fire in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A helicopter drops water over a burned forest in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Flames burn near a house in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A man speaking on his cellphone walks through a burned area in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

MADRID (AP) — Venezuelans living in Spain are watching the events unfold back home with a mix of awe, joy and fear.

Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, home to the largest population anywhere outside the Americas. Many fled political persecution and violence but also the country’s collapsing economy.

A majority live in the capital, Madrid, working in hospitals, restaurants, cafes, nursing homes and elsewhere. While some Venezuelan migrants have established deep roots and lives in the Iberian nation, others have just arrived.

Here is what three of them had to say about the future of Venezuela since U.S. forces deposed Nicolás Maduro.

David Vallenilla woke up to text messages from a cousin on Jan. 3 informing him “that they invaded Venezuela.” The 65-year-old from Caracas lives alone in a tidy apartment in the south of Madrid with two Daschunds and a handful of birds. He was in disbelief.

“In that moment, I wanted certainty,” Vallenilla said, “certainty about what they were telling me.”

In June 2017, Vallenilla’s son, a 22-year-old nursing student in Caracas named David José, was shot point-blank by a Venezuelan soldier after taking part in a protest near a military air base in the capital. He later died from his injuries. Video footage of the incident was widely publicized, turning his son’s death into an emblematic case of the Maduro government’s repression against protesters that year.

After demanding answers for his son’s death, Vallenilla, too, started receiving threats and decided two years later to move to Spain with the help of a nongovernmental organization.

On the day of Maduro’s capture, Vallenilla said his phone was flooded with messages about his son.

“Many told me, ‘Now David will be resting in peace. David must be happy in heaven,’” he said. “But don't think it was easy: I spent the whole day crying.”

Vallenilla is watching the events in Venezuela unfold with skepticism but also hope. He fears more violence, but says he has hope the Trump administration can effect the change that Venezuelans like his son tried to obtain through elections, popular protests and international institutions.

“Nothing will bring back my son. But the fact that some justice has begun to be served for those responsible helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, I also hope for a free Venezuela.”

Journalist Carleth Morales first came to Madrid a quarter-century ago when Hugo Chávez was reelected as Venezuela's president in 2000 under a new constitution.

The 54-year-old wanted to study and return home, taking a break of sorts in Madrid as she sensed a political and economic environment that was growing more and more challenging.

“I left with the intention of getting more qualified, of studying, and of returning because I understood that the country was going through a process of adaptation between what we had known before and, well, Chávez and his new policies," Morales said. "But I had no idea that we were going to reach the point we did.”

In 2015, Morales founded an organization of Venezuelan journalists in Spain, which today has hundreds of members.

The morning U.S. forces captured Maduro, Morales said she woke up to a barrage of missed calls from friends and family in Venezuela.

“Of course, we hope to recover a democratic country, a free country, a country where human rights are respected,” Morales said. “But it’s difficult to think that as a Venezuelan when we’ve lived through so many things and suffered so much.”

Morales sees it as unlikely that she would return home, having spent more than two decades in Spain, but she said she hopes her daughters can one day view Venezuela as a viable option.

“I once heard a colleague say, ‘I work for Venezuela so that my children will see it as a life opportunity.’ And I adopted that phrase as my own. So perhaps in a few years it won’t be me who enjoys a democratic Venezuela, but my daughters.”

For two weeks, Verónica Noya has waited for her phone to ring with the news that her husband and brother have been freed.

Noya’s husband, Venezuelan army Capt. Antonio Sequea, was imprisoned in 2020 after having taken part in a military incursion to oust Maduro. She said he remains in solitary confinement in the El Rodeo prison in Caracas. For 20 months, Noya has been unable to communicate with him or her brother, who was also arrested for taking part in the same plot.

“That’s when my nightmare began,” Noya said.

Venezuelan authorities have said hundreds of political prisoners have been released since Maduro's capture, while rights groups have said the real number is a fraction of that. Noya has waited in agony to hear anything about her four relatives, including her husband's mother, who remain imprisoned.

Meanwhile, she has struggled with what to tell her children when they ask about their father's whereabouts. They left Venezuela scrambling and decided to come to Spain because family roots in the country meant that Noya already had a Spanish passport.

Still, she hopes to return to her country.

“I’m Venezuelan above all else,” Noya said. “And I dream of seeing a newly democratic country."

Venezuelan journalist Caleth Morales works in her apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

David Vallenilla, father of the late David José Vallenilla Luis, sits in his apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Veronica Noya holds a picture of her husband Antonio Sequea in Madrid, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

David Vallenilla holds a picture of deposed President Nicolas Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, during an interview with The Associated Press at his home in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pictures of the late David José Vallenilla Luis are placed in the living room of his father, David José Vallenilla, in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)