Spain and Portugal battle wildfires as death toll mounts

The Iberian peninsula has been particularly affected by forest fires fuelled by heatwaves and drought blamed on climate change that have hit southern Europe.

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.

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.

The head of Spain's Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, told broadcaster TVE there were currently 23 "active fires" that pose a serious and direct threat to the population.

The fires, now in their second week, were concentrated in the northwest regions of Galicia, Castile and Leon, and Extremadura.

In 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 facemasks.

Firefighters 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.

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.

"If not, our house would have been burnt, it would not have survived."
'Complicated situation'
Barcones said she hoped weather conditions 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.

Elsewhere, 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.

Spain is being helped with firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands, while Portugal is receiving air support from Sweden and Morocco.

"It's a very difficult, very complicated situation," Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told TVE.

The size and severity of the fires and the intensity of the smoke -- visible from space -- were making "airborne action" difficult," she added.

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.

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.

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.

Some 2,000 firefighters were deployed across northern and central Portugal on Monday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arbanil.

Some 216,000 hectares of land have been destroyed across Portugal since the start of the year.

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