Different wildfires have spread across Spain and Portugal as a result of a six-fold increase in the death toll since the outbreaks started, with thousands of firefighters working with the military to combat them.
On Sunday, two firefighters died in Portugal and four in Spain, one of them in a road accident and one in each nation.
Wildfires that have ravaged Southern Europe this summer have had a particular impact on the Iberian Peninsula. They are being fueled by climate change-related heatwaves and drought.
More than 3,800 firefighters battled five major fires in Portugal on Monday, according to civil protection authorities.
Sonia Gallego, a reporter for Al Jazeera from Tarouca, Portugal, reported that “we still have firefighters who are monitoring the area here, and the occasional smoke that comes out of the land here.” Of course, these are the charred remains of the flames that have already completely engulfed these hills.
Emergency services are concerned about the possibility of the Portuguese town’s fires rekindling, according to Gallego.
According to her, what appear to be some of the “worst” fires in the area in years is already “enormous strain” for emergency services.
A firefighter died on Sunday in a fatal traffic accident that seriously injured two coworkers, according to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
On Friday, a former Guarda mayor lost his life while attempting to contain a fire.
Since the start of the year, Portugal has burned about 2, 160 square kilometers (835 square miles) of land.
Spain’s neighbor battles also blaze.
The European Forest Fire Information System projects that more than 3, 430 square kilometers (1, 325 square miles) of land have burned in Spain this year, breaking a new national record.
Virginia Barcones, the head of Spain’s Civil Protection and Emergencies agency, told TVE on Monday that there were 23 “active fires” that posed a serious and immediate threat to people.
Galicia, Castile, Leon, and Extremadura, in the northwestern region, were the main sites of the fires, which are now in their second week.
Locals in the province of Ourense, Galicia, used water from hoses and buckets to try to stop the spread, while firefighters battled to put out fires.
A firefighter was killed on Sunday night when his water truck flipped over on a steep forest road and down a slope, according to Castile and Leon officials.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply