Deadly wildfires rage across Spain as record area of land burned

Helicopters fight a wildfire in Guardo, Palencia province. Photo / Cesar Manso, AFP

Thousands of firefighters backed by soldiers and water-bombing aircraft on Monday battled more than 20 major wildfires raging across western Spain, where officials say a record area of land has already been burned.

Spain and neighbouring Portugal have been particularly affected by forest fires fuelled by heatwaves and drought, blamed on climate change, that have hit southern Europe.

Two firefighters were killed on Sunday – one in each country, both in road crashes – taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain.

Spain’s civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told public television TVE that 23 blazes were classified as “operational level two”, meaning they pose a direct threat to nearby communities.

The fires, now entering their second week, are concentrated in the western regions of Castile and Leon, Galicia, and Extremadura, where thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.

Residents said they were frustrated with what they regarded as poor preparation and limited resources.

“There’s a feeling of helplessness and indignation – at the lack of resources, at the neglect, at the disastrous management,” Jose Carlos Fernandez, a 47-year-old massage therapist from Benavente in Castile and Leon, told AFP by telephone.

“The air is unbreathable, very thick, and the smell of smoke is coming into homes.”

‘Like a bomb’

More than 343,000ha – 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 306,000ha was set in the same period three years ago.

Firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands are helping Spain, while Portugal is receiving air support from Sweden and Morocco.

But the size and severity of the fires and the intensity of the smoke – visible from space – were making airborne action difficult, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told TVE.

“It’s a very complicated situation,” she added.

In the 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 masks.

Firefighters battled the flames as locals in 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.”

‘Unprecedented severity’

Across the border in Portugal, about 2000 firefighters were deployed across the north and centre of the country on Monday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arganil.

About 216,000ha of land have been destroyed across Portugal since the start of the year.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the country had endured 24 days of weather conditions of “unprecedented severity” with high temperature and strong winds.

Officials in both countries expressed hope that the weather 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.

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, days after two other volunteer firefighters were killed in the region.

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 crash that seriously injured two colleagues.

A former mayor in the eastern town of Guarda died on Friday while trying to tackle a fire.

- Agence France-Presse