Disasters & Accidents

Dangerous fires remain out of control in parts of Spain

Madrid, Jul 19 (EFE).- Deadly wildfires continue to burn out of control across Spain Tuesday.

Firefighting efforts were focused on a blaze in the Zamora province of western Spain that has so far claimed two lives — a firefighter and a local shepherd — and in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain.

Forest fires in Extremadura and Catalonia were declared under control by authorities as temperatures dipped lightly following a suffocating heat wave that has since moved into France and the United Kingdom.

Although common during the dry and hot summer months, fires so far this year have scorched a combined 70,000 hectares of Spanish land, an area over twice the size of Malta and double the average recorded in Spain in the last decade.

In the latest heat wave, Spain’s second of the year, over 20,000 hectares of land have been incinerated by fires, prompting the evacuation of 8,000 people in hotspots up and down the country, the government’s spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez, said.

Spain’s government, which has directly attributed the heat wave and fires to the climate crisis, has pledged to boost its wildfire response capabilities.EFE

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