Portugal suffers new wildfire death as Spain beats back blazes

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Madrid (AFP) — A fourth Portuguese firefighter died of injuries sustained battling a wildfire Saturday as Spain slowly got the upper hand over fires that have scorched vast swathes of territory.

Eight people have now died in the two countries that have been gripped by a summer of fires fuelled by heatwaves, tinderbox conditions and strong winds.

Portugal’s presidency said that a firefighter had died of injuries suffered this week in Sabugal in the northeast. Media said the 45-year-old had been working for a private company battling the fires.

Spain has also counted four deaths.

But with weather conditions improving, Spanish authorities said that the tide appeared to have turned in the fight against the fires, mainly raging in the country’s west and northwest.

The head of Spain’s civil protection and emergencies service, Virginia Barcones, said there were still 18 “treacherous” fires burning.

But she added that Spanish emergency services, backed by European reinforcements, had almost contained the blazes.

“We will need a final push to be done with this horrible situation,” she told TVE television. “There are fewer of them and the end is a lot nearer.”

Hard-hit regions

The Spanish regions of Castile and Leon, Extremadura and Galicia have been hardest hit by the fires that flared during the latest heatwave that saw temperatures soaring to 40C and above.

In Portugal, the office of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent condolences to the family of the fireman “who tragically lost his life after directly combating the forest fires in Sabugal municipality”.

The amount of land burnt across the Iberian peninsula has hit a total area about the size of the US state of Delaware, based on EU statistics.

The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) said Spain had lost a record 403,000 hectares (996,000 acres), while Portugal lost 278,000 hectares this year. The total is about 6,810 square kilometres (2,630 square miles).

Accusations crisis was mishandled

The fire emergency has thrown a spotlight on climate change and trends that have left Spain’s countryside vulnerable.

Castile and Leon has suffered from decades of rural exodus, an ageing population and a decline of farming and livestock grazing that once helped keep forests clear of tinder.

The fires have fuelled accusations in Spain that politicians mishandled the crisis.

The main opposition Popular Party has accused Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, of having withheld aid to damaged regions where its officials govern.

According to EFFIS data analyzed by AFP, Spain is one of four European Union countries experiencing their worst year for wildfires since statistics began in 2006, along with Cyprus, Germany and Slovakia.

Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide.

Lower humidity in the air, vegetation and soil make it easier for wildfires to ignite and harder to control.