Residents have been forced to flee as the fires spread to land and property – Copyright AFP MIGUEL RIOPA<\/p>\n
Alfons Luna with Levi Fernandes in Lisbon<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Iberian peninsula has been particularly affected by forest fires fuelled by a succession of heatwaves and droughts blamed on climate change that have hit the southern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
Two firefighters were killed on Sunday \u2014 one in each country, both in road accidents \u2014 taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain.<\/p>\n
The head of Spain\u2019s Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, told broadcaster TVE there were currently 23 \u201cactive fires in operation status two\u201d, indicating a serious and direct threat to the population.<\/p>\n
The fires, now in their second week, were concentrated in Galicia, Castile and Leon, and Extremadura regions.<\/p>\n
In the Ourense province of Galicia, northwestern Spain, signs of the fires were everywhere, from ashen forests and blackened soil to destroyed homes, with thick smoke forcing people to wear facemasks.<\/p>\n
Firefighters in protective clothing, armed with fire beaters, 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 75 years, I truly mean it, I have never experienced anything like this before,\u201d a woman in the town of O Barco de Valdeorras told AFP.<\/p>\n
Another resident dousing his home with water from a hosepipe described the wildfire that ripped through his area as \u201clike a bomb\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came from below and it was like a hurricane,\u201d he said. \u201cThe good thing was that in two minutes it headed up and it didn\u2019t stay here long.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, our house would have been burnt, it would not have survived.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Complicated situation\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Barcones said she hoped weather conditions would turn to help tackle the fires, as Spain\u2019s meteorological agency forecast \u201cthe last day of this heatwave\u201d, which has seen temperatures hit 45C in parts of the south.<\/p>\n
Many other places have seen temperatures above 40C.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the southern Mediterranean, the 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spain is being helped with firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands, while Portugal is receiving air support from Sweden and Morocco.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult, very complicated situation,\u201d Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told TVE.<\/p>\n
The size and severity of the fires and the intensity of the smoke \u2014 visible from space \u2014 were making \u201cairborne action\u201d difficult,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor an unknown reason, the vehicle approached the embankment and overturned, falling down a steep slope,\u201d the regional government posted on X.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In Portugal, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said a firefighter died on Sunday night in a traffic accident that left two of his colleagues seriously injured.<\/p>\n
A former mayor in the eastern town of Guarda died on Friday while trying to tackle a fire.<\/p>\n
Some 2,000 firefighters were deployed across northern and central Portugal on Monday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arbanil.<\/p>\n
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