Wildfire tragedy as man is run over and killed by his own bulldozer after leaping out to escape flames in Portugal

Daily Mail​

a day ago

A 65-year-old man was run over and killed by his own bulldozer he was operating while fighting wildfires in Portugal.
He was working for a company in Mirandela, in the north of the country, when he fell from his machine and was run over as he tried to escape fast-moving flames, local officials said.
The country has been battling blazes since late July, with the north and centre hardest hit.
More than 216,000 hectares have already gone up in smoke this summer, wiping out 2.3 per cent of Portugal's land.
Two firefighters have died and more than 130 people have been injured, many of them emergency workers, according to Portuguese media.
The firefighters were killed on Sunday when their truck plunged into a ravine while they were rushing to tackle a blaze. In the north of the country, a deadly fire tornado claimed the life of a former mayor as he tried to defend his town.
Last week, the mayor of Vila Real said: 'We are under enormous attack, with absolutely incalculable losses, the resources are clearly insufficient given the scale of what we are experiencing.'
Meanwhile, in Spain, four people have died in wildfires as huge swathes of land have been left charred.
This week, it was reported that the 16 days of extreme heat that have fuelled the flames may have been behind more than 1,100 excess deaths.
In some areas, high temperatures above 45C were recorded.
More than 382,000 hectares of countryside have burned as authorities say this is now one of the worst wildfire seasons on record.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged residents to 'exercise extreme caution', warning that 'critical moments remain, difficult hours remain' as he visited some of the worst hit areas.
While Spanish officials have pinned many of the wildfires on lightning that occurs during dry storms, they have also said that some have been started by arsonists.
Authorities say arson is suspected in a number of incidents, with 27 people arrested and dozens more under investigation.
Last week, the regional leader of Castile and León also said he suspects arson in the infernos that led to the evacuation of more than 1,400 residents.
So far, 188 investigations into the crime have resulted in the arrest of 32 people.
Across Europe, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as they scramble to move out of the way of the raging flames.
The heatwave has also triggered deadly blazes in Greece, France, and Turkey, where at least 17 people have been killed.
Turkey has declared multiple disaster zones as wildfires swept through its Mediterranean coast.
In İzmir province, more than 50,000 people were displaced as the flames raged on under suffocating heat.
In Cyprus, two elderly people were killed as they tried to escape the wildfires in their car.
Officials in Albania have said an 80-year-old man died in a fire in Tirana.
In total, more than half a million hectares have burned across the European Union this summer, around two and a half times the usual average.