Monday, August 18, 2025 - Two firefighters have been k!lled in Spain and Portugal, authorities said on Monday, as wildfires ravage the Iberian Peninsula during a sweltering heatwave.
Both died in road accidents, taking the de@th toll to two
in Portugal and four in Spain since the fires broke out.
Spain is in the grips of a third week of heatwave alerts,
with the emergency services, backed by specialist army units, battling fires in
the north-west and west of the country.
Neighbouring Portugal has also been trying to put out fires
across the country, and both nations have appealed to the European Union for
assistance.
The regional government in Castile and Leon, north-western
Spain, wrote on X that one firefighter was k!lled when his emergency vehicle
flipped over on a steep forest road.
"For an unknown reason, the vehicle approached the
embankment and overturned, falling down a steep slope," it added.
Fires across Spain have destroyed more than 70,000 hectares
of land in recent days – just under half of the total area burnt in the country
so far this year, the European Forest Fire Information System said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited one of the affected
regions on Sunday and promised "a national pact" to deal with the
climate emergency.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said a
firefighter died on Sunday and two of his colleagues were seriously injured.
The latest de@th comes after a former mayor in Guarda,
eastern Portugal, was killed fighting a fire on Friday.
On Monday morning, about 2,000 firefighters were deployed
across northern and central Portugal, with about half mobilised to try to douse
flames in the town of Arganil.
Portugal, where about 185,000 hectares of land have been
destroyed by wildfire since the start of the year, is expecting the arrival of
two water-bombing aircraft to help teams on the ground.
The devastation is has already eclipsed the 136,000 hectares
destroyed last year, according to provisional data from the country's forestry
institute.
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