Spain beats 20 large forest fires, deploys 500 additional soldiers in burning heat | Climate crisis news

Spain has deployed 500 other soldiers from the military emergency unit to support fire -fighting operations while fighting 20 major forest fires across the country during a heat wave that started last week.

“There are still difficult days to come, and unfortunately, the weather is not on our side,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at a press conference on Sunday in Ohisen, one of the most affected areas in northwestern Spain.

He announced an increase in military reinforcements, bearing the total number of soldiers deployed across Spain to 1,900.

Firefighters attack 12 major forest fires in the northwest region of Galicia alone, all near the city of Oorense, the head of the Galician regional government Alfonso Rueda also said at the press conference.

“The houses are still threatened, so we have locking in place and performing evacuations,” said Rueda.

The announcements came while the authorities awaited the arrival of reinforcements of the aircraft promised in other European countries.

The national rail operator Renfe said that he had suspended the high-speed train services from Madrid-Galicia scheduled for Sunday due to fires.

The Galician authorities advised people to wear facial masks and limit their time spent outside to avoid inhaling smoke and ashes.

The southern Europe is one of its worst forest seasons in two decades with Spain among the harshest countries.

During the last week only, fires have killed three people And burned more than 1,150 m² (445 m²) while neighboring Portugal also fights widespread flames.

Temperatures should reach up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in certain regions on Sunday, said Aemet, Aemet, the National Meteorological Agency of Spain.

Virginia Barcones, director general of emergency services, said on Spanish public television that temperatures should fall on Tuesday, but for the moment, weather conditions were “very unfavorable”.

Help the EU on its way

“The households come from all sides, but they do not come here,” a resident, a resident, told Basilio Rodriguez on Saturday at the Reuters news agency.

Spain expected the arrival of two Dutch planes for the water toilet which were to join planes from France and Italy already helping the Spanish authorities under a European cooperation agreement.

Firefighters from other countries are expected to arrive in the region in the coming days, Barcones told RTVE public broadcaster.

Data from the Interior Ministry show that 27 people have been arrested and 92 have been investigated for an alleged criminal fire since June.

In the neighborhood PortugalUntil now, forest fires have burned about 1,550 m² (600 miles) of vegetation this year, according to provisional data from the Institute of Conservation and Forests of Nature – three times the average of this period from 2006 to 2024. About half of this area has burned just in the last three days.

Thousands of firefighters fought against eight large flames in the center and northern Portugal, the largest of them near Piodao, a picturesque and mountainous region popular with tourists.

Another fire in Transcoso, further north, has now been raging for eight days. A small fire just in the east of there killed a local resident on Friday – the first death this season.

Portugal is defined for a fresher time in the coming days. A national alert state due to forest fires was imposed on August 2 and was to end on Sunday, one day before the arrival of two planes to fight Swedish fires.

As in Spain, Portugal’s resources have been stretched. On Sunday, more than 4,000 firefighters and 1,300 vehicles were deployed as well as 17 planes, said the Civil Protection Agency.

Forest fires also burn in Turkiye

Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania have also requested help from the European Union fire fighting in recent days to deal with forest fires. The force has already been activated as many times this year as throughout the summer fire season of last year.

In TürkiyeWhere recent forest fires killed 19 people, some parts of the historic region which include commemorative monuments in the Gallipoli countryside of the First World War were evacuated on Sunday while the flames threatened houses in the northwest of the country.

Six villages have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, said the governor of the province of Canakkale, Omer Toraman.

According to the management General of Forestry.

Turkiye has been struck by hundreds of fires since the end of June, powered by record temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.

Europe heats up twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the Copernicus Climate Change EU service. Scientists have declared that climate change exacerbates the frequency and intensity of heat and drought in certain parts of Europe, which makes the region more vulnerable to forest fires.