Winds complicate wildfire battles in Spain; Portugal suffers third death | Climate Crisis News

Strong winds have hampered efforts to contain unremitting wildfires that continue to spread in Spain despite lower temperatures, as the death toll in Portugal has climbed to three people after a man was killed while helping fight fires there along the Iberian Peninsula.

Firefighters, backed by troops and water-dropping aircraft, were battling 21 blazes in western Spain classified as “operational level two”, meaning they pose a direct threat to nearby communities, said Virginia Barcones, director general of emergency services on Wednesday.

“Temperatures have dropped, but strong gusts of wind continue to hinder firefighting efforts, and the lack of rain is not helping, though we hope that changes in the coming days,” she told a news conference.

Forecasters said winds were expected to ease later in the day, with higher humidity levels likely to help efforts. Rain was forecast in some fire-hit regions on Thursday.

Spain endured a 16-day heatwave that ended Monday, with temperatures having soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104F) in many regions. The heat-fuelled wildfires have killed four people.

Train service between Madrid and the northwestern region of Galicia – suspended on August 14 – would resume because “tracks are now safe”, railway operator Adif said.

The wildfires “are being gradually brought under control,” said Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from the Galicia region at the site of “a controlled fire that was deliberately set alight by firefighters here,” which is done “to try to get the fire to change direction, to avoid it causing even more damage.”

Earlier in the day, firefighters “set the fire and then used the wind, which was blowing in the opposite direction to where the crops were and the wood, in order to direct those blazes and for it to extinguish itself naturally,” said Gallego.

“Because one of the reasons these wildfires have been extremely serious this year is there have been very strong winds coupled with record-breaking heatwaves.”

Officials said many of the fires were sparked by lightning during dry storms, though arson is suspected in some cases.

Aircraft from Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Slovenia have joined the firefighting effort.

Germany sent 60 firefighters and 24 vehicles, France deployed 66 firefighters and 23 vehicles, while Finland sent 26 firefighters.

Nearly 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) have burned in Spain this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), surpassing the previous record of 306,000 hectares (756,000 acres) in 2022, the worst season since records began in 2006.

In Portugal, a man died in an accident involving construction equipment being used to contain the flames. He had worked for a company hired to help the northern municipality of Mirandela fight the fires, commander Paulo Santos of the National Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) told the AFP news agency.

Approximately 15 people were also injured in Portugal – one critically – while fighting fires Tuesday near the central city of Sabugal, where two water-bombing aeroplanes sent by Sweden through the European Union’s civil protection agency were deployed.

Crews were still battling four large fires on Wednesday morning, the most complex of which were raging in the north and centre of the country.

More than 2,600 firefighters have been deployed, supported by about 20 aircraft.

Since the start of the year, more than 261,000 hectares (645,000 acres) in Portugal have been destroyed by fires, according to the EFFIS, compared with 143,000 hectares (353,000 acres) in 2024.

The fires in Spain and Portugal have been fuelled by heatwaves and drought blamed on climate change. Lower humidity in the air, vegetation and soil makes it easier for wildfires to ignite and harder to control them once they start.