•A helicopter fights a wildfire in Castrillo de Cabrera, Spain
Thousands of firefighters backed by soldiers and water-bombing aircraft yesterday battled over 20 major wildfires raging across western Spain, where officials say a record area of land has already been burnt.
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, reports AFP.
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.
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.
“No one’s shown up here, nobody,” Patricia Vila, 42, told AFPTV in the village of Vilamartin de Valdeorras in Ourense province of Galicia.
“Not a single damn helicopter, not one plane, has come to drop water and cool things down a bit.”
‘Fire Everywhere’
Signs of the fires were everywhere in the province, from ashen forests and blackened soil to destroyed homes, with thick smoke forcing people to wear masks.
Firefighters battled the flames as locals in just shorts and T-shirts used water from hoses and buckets to try to stop the spread.
More than 343,000 hectares (848,000 acres) 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.
Spain is being helped with firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands, 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 difficult, very complicated situation,” she added.
Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes since the wildfires began last week.
“We had to run away because the fire was coming in from everywhere—everywhere, above us, below us, all around,” said Isidoro, 83, in Vilamartin de Valdeorras.
‘At War’
Across the border in Portugal, some 2,000 firefighters were deployed across the north and centre of the country yesterday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arganil.
Some 216,000 hectares 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.
“We are at war, and we must triumph in this fight,” he added.
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 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.
