Madrid [Spain], August 19 : The Spanish government will declare areas affected by the deadly wildfires in northern Galicia province as disaster zones, Euro News reported.
On Tuesday, firefighters were working for a 10th consecutive day to contain a dozen fires that have collectively burned nearly 4,000 square kilometres of Spanish woodlands, Euro News reported.
The fires are among Spain's most destructive in recent decades and continue despite falling temperatures across the Iberian Peninsula following a record-setting European heatwave. Thousands of firefighters, aided by soldiers and water-bombing aircraft, are battling blazes that have hit north-western Spain particularly hard, where the national weather agency AEMET reported a still "very high or extreme" fire risk, Euro News reported.
The wildfires in Galicia have devastated small, sparsely populated towns, often forcing locals to intervene before firefighters arrive. Firefighting units from Germany arrived in northern Spain on Tuesday to assist, according to Spain's Interior Ministry. Additionally, more than 20 vehicles were deployed to fight an ongoing blaze in Jarilla in the Extremadura region, bordering Portugal.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the area on Tuesday, highlighting the unprecedented heat that has fueled the fires. Over the past days, Galicia recorded average daily temperatures exceeding 42 degrees Celsius. "Science tells us, common sense tells us too, especially that of farmers and ranchers, of those who live in rural areas, that the climate is changing, that the climate emergency is becoming more and more recurrent, more frequent and has an ever greater impact," Sanchez said.
The fires have claimed four lives in Spain this year and destroyed over 3,800 square kilometres, more than twice the size of metropolitan London, according to the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System. Many of the fires have been linked to human activity, with 23 people detained for suspected arson and 89 others under investigation.
In neighbouring Portugal, more than 3,700 firefighters are battling flames, including four major active wildfires in central and northern regions. Fires there have affected 2,350 square kilometres and killed at least two people, Euro News reported, a five-fold increase over the almost two-decade average for this period.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Scientists warn that climate change is intensifying heat and dryness across parts of Europe, increasing wildfire risks and calling for urgent action.
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