Spain has deployed a further 500 soldiers to battle wildfires that have spread across parts of the country in scorching conditions – taking the total number of troops to 1,900.
The fires have burned 158,000 hectares so far this year, according to the EU’s European Forest Fire Information System – an area roughly as big as metropolitan London – and three people have died in the last week.
Up to 20 major wildfires are burning in total, including several in Spain‘s northwestern region of Galicia. Some have converged to form a large blaze, forcing the closure of roads and rail services.
Two water-dumping planes from the Netherlands are expected to join aircraft from France and Italy already helping Spanish authorities, and firefighters from other countries are also set to arrive in the coming days, Civil Protection Agency chief Virginia Barcones told public broadcaster RTVE.
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Southern Europe is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in 20 years, with Spain among the hardest-hit countries.
While Southern Europe lived through wildfires, droughts and heatwaves long before humans started to change the climate by burning fossil fuels, hotter global temperatures can supercharge some of the conditions for these types of extreme weather, according to climate scientists.
Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania have also requested help from the EU’s firefighting force in recent days.
Thousands of firefighters are also battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest of them near the mountainous area of Piodao.
The smoke from the wildfires in Spain and Portugal also recently brought hazy conditions to the UK.
Portugal is set for cooler weather in the coming days, but temperatures were expected to reach up to 45C (113F) in some areas of Spain on Sunday.
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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said there remained “some challenging days ahead and, unfortunately, the weather is not on our side”.
Alfonso Rueda, head of the Galician regional government, said lockdowns were in place and evacuations were being carried out, with homes “still under threat”.
