A woman with a hose tries to put out the fire during a wildfire in Santa Baia De Montes, northwestern Spain. Photo: Lalo R Villar/AP
Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece battled ongoing wildfires yesterday as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes.
Spain was fighting 14 major fires, according to Virginia Barcones, general director of emergency services. Temperatures were expected to climb over the weekend.
The national weather agency AEMET warned of extreme fire risk in most of the country, including where the largest blazes were burning in the north and west. A heatwave which brought temperatures exceeding 40C on several days this month was expected to last through Monday.
Fires in the Galicia region forced the closure of several highways. The high speed rail line connecting it to Spain’s capital, Madrid, remained suspended.
In Portugal, nearly 4,000 firefighters were battling fires yesterday. Seven major fires were active. Authorities extended the state of alert until tomorrow as high temperatures were expected to last through the weekend.
The Portuguese government yesterday requested assistance from the EU’s civil protection mechanism, a firefighting force that European countries in need can call upon. A day before, Spain received two Canadair water bomber aircraft after requesting EU help to tackle blazes for the first time ever.
In the past week, Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania have requested help from the EU’s firefighting force. The force has already been activated as many times this year as all of last year’s fire season.
Yesterday, a wildfire in Greece burned out of control for a fourth day on the island of Chios, prompting several more overnight evacuations.
Two water-dropping planes and two helicopters were operating in the north of the island in the eastern Aegean Sea, where local authorities said a lull in high winds was helping firefighters early yesterday.