• Residents of Spain’s La Bañeza town receive €468 million after summer wildfires
• The win gives locals a boost of hope despite the losses

Spain’s Christmas lottery, known as "El Gordo," brought great joy to northwest Spain, distributing the grand prize worth hundreds of millions of euros just months after the region was hit by devastating forest fires.

Reports indicated that most of the winning tickets had been purchased by residents of small towns in the province of León.

Each ticket is worth €400,000 if it bears the winning number, and when multiple tickets of the same number are bought by a group of neighbors or colleagues, the prize can reach millions of euros.

In La Bañeza, a total of €468 million was distributed among the residents.

Among the winners were members of a local football club in the town, which has a population of around 11,000.

The grand prize came four months after forest fires swept through León, destroying around 8,000 hectares of land surrounding La Bañeza and causing the death of a 35-year-old local man named Abel Ramos.

The sparsely populated, heavily forested northwest of Spain is accustomed to wildfires, though this year was exceptional in severity.

Firefighters battled massive blazes in León and the neighboring Galicia region throughout August.

The mayor of La Bañeza, Javier Carrera, said the lottery win “represents a boost of excitement and hope,” also noting the closure of a local sugar-beet factory this year, which led to the loss of dozens of jobs.

Another town in León province, Villablino, which was severely affected by the summer fires, also received a large share of the jackpot, totaling €200 million.

Mayor Mario Rivas said: “We needed some good news.”

He added that the town also witnessed the deaths of five local men in two separate mining accidents in Asturias this year, explaining: “This doesn’t replace the lives of our friends, but it shows that there can also be good news.”

Sources noted that most of the winning tickets in Villablino were sold through a local Alzheimer’s support association.

Additionally, the town of La Pola de Gordón, with a population of 3,000, received €60 million, while another €64 million went to a working-class district in Madrid.