Spain and Portugal fires kill two more as Spanish troops battle blazes

  19 August 2025    Read: 1780
Spain and Portugal fires kill two more as Spanish troops battle blazes

Spain has sent 500 more troops to fight raging wildfires, bringing the total deployed to 1,900, as the death toll from the blazes has risen to four.

On Sunday, a firefighter died after an accident during firefighting efforts when his truck fell down a steep hill, the Castile and León regional government said.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed "sadness" and "desolation" on X at the latest death.

In neighbouring Portugal, where fires are also blazing, another firefighter was killed on Sunday in a "tragic" traffic accident, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.

Fires have also broken out in Greece, France, Turkey and the Balkans as a heatwave has scorched swathes of southern Europe.

Several large fires are still burning in the northwest and west of Spain, where 27,000 residents are currently evacuated from their homes.

Castile and León is the most affected area, with local media station Radio 5 reporting on Monday that the air is "unbreathable" due to the smoke.

A fire in the western province of Cáceres is also still out of control and has burned 11,000 hectares (27,181 acres).

Twelve fires are burning in the north-west region of Galicia, most in the province of Ourense, with the largest having burned 17,500 hectares.

Fires on Sunday left at least five people injured in Castile and León, with four of them in critical condition.

Last week, two volunteers died fighting fires in Leon. Another man died in Tres Cantos, near Madrid, after a fire broke out.

This year alone, about 343,000 hectares have burned across Spain, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) - close to double the amount from the previous year.

Over the weekend, Spain's Civil Guard said they have proposed "sanctions" on four people for carrying out unauthorised burns in A Coruña in the Galicia region.

Causing a wildfire is a criminal offence in Spain, even if accidental.


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