Scorching heat on Sunday hampered efforts to contain 20 major wildfires across Spain, leading the government to deploy an additional 500 troops from the military emergency unit to support firefighting operations.
In the northwestern region of Galicia, several fires have merged to form one large blaze, forcing the closure of key highways and rail services to the area.
Southern Europe is currently facing one of its most severe wildfire seasons in two decades, with Spain being one of the hardest-hit countries. In the last week alone, fires there have resulted in three fatalities and burned more than 115,000 hectares, while neighboring Portugal also struggles with widespread fires.
Temperatures were expected to reach up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some areas on Sunday, according to the Spanish national weather agency AEMET.
“There are still some challenging days ahead and, unfortunately, the weather is not on our side,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference in Ourense, one of the most affected areas. He announced an increase in military reinforcements, bringing the total number of troops deployed across Spain to 1,900.
Virginia Barcones, the director general of emergency services, told Spanish public TV that while temperatures are expected to drop from Tuesday, current weather conditions are “very adverse.”
“Today there are extremely high temperatures with an extreme risk of fires, which complicates the firefighting efforts,” Barcones said.
Villagers Forced to Use Buckets to Fight Flames
In the village of Villardevos in Galicia, desperate locals have resorted to fighting the flames on their own with water buckets since the area was left without electricity to power water pumps.
“The fireplanes come in from all sides, but they don’t come here,” resident Basilio Rodriguez told Reuters on Saturday. Another local, Lorea Pascual, added, “It’s insurmountable, it couldn’t be worse.”
According to Interior Ministry data, 27 people have been arrested and 92 are under investigation for suspected arson since June.
In neighboring Portugal, wildfires have burned approximately 155,000 hectares of vegetation so far this year, according to provisional data from the ICNF forestry protection institute. This is three times the average for this period between 2006 and 2024. About half of that area burned just in the past three days.
Thousands of firefighters are battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest of which is near Piodao, a scenic mountainous area popular with tourists. Another fire in Trancoso, further north, has been raging for eight days. A smaller fire a few miles east claimed a local resident’s life on Friday—the first fatality of the season.
