Spain battles 20 major wildfires amid scorching heat, deploys more troops
'There are challenging days ahead and unfortunately the weather is not on our side,' Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference in Ourense, one of the most affected areas.
He announced an increase in military reinforcements, bringing the total number of troops deployed across Spain to 1,900.
Virginia Barcones, director-general of emergency services, told Spanish public TV the weather conditions were 'very adverse' but temperatures were expected to drop from Tuesday.
'Today there are extremely high temperatures with an extreme risk of fires, which complicates firefighting efforts,' Barcones said.
In the village of Villardevos in Galicia, desperate neighbours have organised to fight the flames on their own with water buckets as the area was left without electricity to power water pumps.
'The fire planes come in from all sides, but they don't come here,' Basilio Rodriguez, a resident, told Reuters on Saturday.
Resident Lorea Pascual said: 'It's insurmountable. It couldn't be worse'.
Interior ministry data show 27 people have been arrested and 92 were under investigation for suspected arson since June.
In neighbouring Portugal, wildfires have burnt 155,000 hectares of vegetation so far this year, according to provisional data from the ICNF forestry protection institute, three times the average for this period between 2006 to 2024. About half of the area burnt in the past three days.
Thousands of firefighters were battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest near Piodao, a scenic, mountainous area popular with tourists.
Another blaze in Trancoso, further north, has been raging for eight days. A smaller fire a few miles east took a resident's life on Friday, the first this season.
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Spain and Portugal battle wildfires as death toll mounts
Thousands of firefighters backed by the military and water-bombing aircraft on Monday battled dozens of wildfires across Spain and Portugal, as the death toll increased to six since the outbreaks began. The Iberian Peninsula has been particularly affected by forest fires fuelled by heatwaves and drought, blamed on climate change, that have hit southern Europe. More than 343,000 hectares of land -- the equivalent of nearly half a million football pitches -- have been destroyed this year in Spain, setting a new national record, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). The previous record of 306,000 hectares was set in the same period three years ago. Two firefighters were killed on Sunday -- one in each country, both in road accidents -- taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain. AFP | Cesar Manso The head of Spain's Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, told broadcaster TVE there were currently 23 "active fires" that pose a serious and direct threat to the population. The fires, now in their second week, were concentrated in the northwest regions of Galicia, Castile and Leon, and Extremadura. In Ourense province of Galicia, signs of the fires were everywhere, from ashen forests and blackened soil to destroyed homes, with thick smoke forcing people to wear facemasks. Firefighters battled to put out fires, as locals in just shorts and T-shirts used water from hoses and buckets to try to stop the spread. One resident in O Barco de Valdeorras, dousing his home with water from a hosepipe, described the wildfire that ripped through his area as "like a bomb". "It came from below and it was like a hurricane," he said. "The good thing was that in two minutes it headed up and it didn't stay here long. "If not, our house would have been burnt, it would not have survived." - 'Complicated situation' - Barcones said she hoped weather conditions would turn to help tackle the fires. Spain's meteorological agency said the heatwave, which has seen temperatures hit 45C in parts of the country, was coming to an end. AFP | Cesar Manso Elsewhere, authorities in Turkey said two major fires had been brought under control, while rain and falling temperatures have helped firefighters extinguish dozens of blazes in the Balkans. Spain is being helped with firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands, while Portugal is receiving air support from Sweden and Morocco. "It's a very difficult, very complicated situation," Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told TVE. The size and severity of the fires and the intensity of the smoke -- visible from space -- were making "airborne action" difficult," she added. Officials in Castile and Leon said a firefighter died on Sunday night when the water truck he was driving flipped over on a steep forest road and down a slope. Two other volunteer firefighters have died in Castile and Leon, while a Romanian employee of a riding school north of Madrid lost his life trying to protect horses from the fire. In Portugal, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said a firefighter died on Sunday in a traffic accident that left two colleagues seriously injured. A former mayor in the eastern town of Guarda died on Friday while trying to tackle a fire. Some 2,000 firefighters were deployed across northern and central Portugal on Monday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arbanil. Some 216,000 hectares of land have been destroyed across Portugal since the start of the year. By Alfons Luna With Levi Fernandes In Lisbon
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
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Spain battles 20 major wildfires amid scorching heat, deploys more troops
Temperatures were expected to reach up to 45 °C in some areas on Sunday, Spanish national weather agency Aemet said. 'There are challenging days ahead and unfortunately the weather is not on our side,' Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference in Ourense, one of the most affected areas. He announced an increase in military reinforcements, bringing the total number of troops deployed across Spain to 1,900. Virginia Barcones, director-general of emergency services, told Spanish public TV the weather conditions were 'very adverse' but temperatures were expected to drop from Tuesday. 'Today there are extremely high temperatures with an extreme risk of fires, which complicates firefighting efforts,' Barcones said. In the village of Villardevos in Galicia, desperate neighbours have organised to fight the flames on their own with water buckets as the area was left without electricity to power water pumps. 'The fire planes come in from all sides, but they don't come here,' Basilio Rodriguez, a resident, told Reuters on Saturday. Resident Lorea Pascual said: 'It's insurmountable. It couldn't be worse'. Interior ministry data show 27 people have been arrested and 92 were under investigation for suspected arson since June. In neighbouring Portugal, wildfires have burnt 155,000 hectares of vegetation so far this year, according to provisional data from the ICNF forestry protection institute, three times the average for this period between 2006 to 2024. About half of the area burnt in the past three days. Thousands of firefighters were battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest near Piodao, a scenic, mountainous area popular with tourists. Another blaze in Trancoso, further north, has been raging for eight days. A smaller fire a few miles east took a resident's life on Friday, the first this season.
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4 days ago
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Fires keep burning in western Spain as army is deployed
MADRID - As Spain enters its third week of heatwave alerts, firefighters continue to battle blazes in the northwest and west of the country, with army units deployed to help contain the blazes. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had held a "coordination meeting" Saturday, as France and Italy sent water bombers to an air base near Salamanca to help with the firefighting efforts. "The government continues to work to fight the fire with all the means at its disposal," he said on X. The most serious forest fires were in the northwest and west of the country, in the regions of Castile and Leon, Galicia, Asturias and Extremadura. Around 10 roads remain closed across the country, as well as the train line between Madrid and Galicia. Emergency services in Galicia sent alert messages urging residents in dozens of towns to take precautions. "If you receive this alert: remain calm and read the text carefully," the alerts said. "As the fires spread, avoid all unnecessary travel and stay indoors. If you are outside and have nowhere to stay, move away from the affected areas." Around 3,500 military from a special emergency unit were deployed around the country, with some political leaders calling for more. Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, the centre-right president of Castile and Leon, asked Sanchez's government "for an exceptional response: we need more army personnel at the disposal of the regions". Extremadura has also made an official request for reinforcements. In Spain, firefighting is in principle the responsibility of the regions with the central government only intervening in the event of a major disaster. AFP | Brais LORENZO Smoke from wildfires in Spain and Portugal has reached the UK, the country's Met Office reported. Since the beginning of the year, more than 157,000 hectares have been reduced to ashes in Spain, according to the real-time map of the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). mig/gv/jj
