A firefighter airplane drops water on a wildfire near the village of Cebreros, Avila province, Spain, on July 27, 2026. (Photo: AFP)

Residents of the last two towns near Madrid to be fully evacuated because of a massive wildfire were allowed to return home late Wednesday, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The evacuation order imposed on Valdemaqueda and Robledo de Chavela had been lifted "immediately", it said.

Francisco Martin, the Spanish government's representative in the Madrid region, said the lifting of the evacuation orders in the two towns "will mean that around 8,500 people will be able to return to their homes."

Just under 1,000 people remain evacuated from residential areas in two other towns near Madrid, San Martin de Valdeiglesias and Pelayos, he added.

In these two towns only some residential developments were evacuated but the municipality as a whole was not.

Emergency services have been working since last week to put out the blaze in the Madrid region and another in neighbouring Avila province, which officials said was the worst in Spain's recent history.

Earlier Wednesday, the authorities allowed residents to return home to all the towns evacuated due to a wildfire in the province of Avila, west of Madrid.

"I think we are at a point where, with all due caution, we can say that the wildfire is evolving favourably," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said late on Wednesday.

But he cautioned the situation remained "critical and highly complex" due to high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds "which are causing fires to spread and expand at an exponential rate".

"Far faster than what was traditionally considered typical for this type of wildfire," he added.