Spain’s Christmas lottery has been welcomed as an “injection of hope” in the northwest of the country, where the jackpot handed out hundreds of millions of euros just months after wildfires had caused devastation.
Most of the first-prize-winning tickets in the lottery, known as El Gordo, had been bought by people in small towns in the province of León.
A single ticket, or décimo, costing 20 euros, is worth 400,000 euros if it bears the winning number, in this case 79432. Décimos come in strips of 10 and when many strips of the same number are sold to a group of neighbours or workmates, there is potential for a massive jackpot.
People in the town of La Bañeza shared out 468 million euros.
Among the recipients were members of a local football club in the town, which has a population of around 11,000.
The jackpot came four months after forest fires had torn through León, burning 8,000 hectares of land surrounding La Bañeza and killing a local man, 35-year-old Abel Ramos.
The sparsely populated, heavily forested north-west of Spain is used to wildfires, although during this record-breaking year, the area was particularly severely affected. Firefighters battled enormous blazes in León and the neighbouring Galicia region throughout much of August and during the summer 0.8 percent of the country’s total surface area was burned.
According to the mayor of the town, Javier Carrera, the lottery win “means for La Bañeza an injection of excitement and hope,” he told Spanish media. Carrera also mentioned the closure this year of a local sugar-beet factory which caused the loss of dozens of jobs.
Another town in the León province that was heavily affected by the summer’s fires, Villablino, also took a massive share of the jackpot, receiving 200 million euros.
“We needed some good news,” said the mayor, Mario Rivas.
On top of the blazes, five local men were killed in two separate mining accidents in nearby Asturias this year.
“It doesn’t make up for the loss of the lives of our friends, but this shows us that there can also be good news,” said Rivas.
Most of the winning tickets in Villablino were sold by a local Alzheimer’s association.
In addition, the town of La Pola de Gordón, also in León and with a population of 3,000, shared out 60 million euros. Sixty-four million euros of jackpot money also went to a working-class district in Madrid.
In Villablino, Maribel Martín had one of the winning décimos, worth 400,000 euros. She was out doing grocery shopping when her son called her to give her the good news.
“We were really down and 200 million euros is a wonderful thing,” she said
She is clear what she wants to do with the prize money. “Spread it around a bit and enjoy life,” she said.