Scorching heat hampered efforts to contain 20 big wildfires across Spain on Sunday.
The high temperatures prompted the government to deploy an additional 500 troops from the military emergency unit to support firefighting operations.
In the northwestern region of Galicia, several fires have converged to form a large blaze, forcing the closure of highways and rail services to the region.
Southern Europe is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in 20 years, with Spain among the hardest-hit countries. In the past week alone, fires there have claimed three lives and burned more than 115,000 hectares, while neighbouring Portugal also battles widespread blazes.
Temperatures were expected to reach up to 45 degrees in some areas on Sunday, said Spanish national weather agency AEMET.
“There are still some challenging days ahead and, unfortunately, the weather is not on our side,” said Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez in Ourense, one of the most affected areas.
He announced further military reinforcements, bringing the number of troops deployed across the country to 1,900.
A fire that started in the Galician town of A Mezquita spread to Castile and León on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of 1,700 people Spanish authorities put number of active forest fires across the country with a high risk level at 16 https://t.co/B3PSoc7UgG
— El País English Edition (@elpaisinenglish) August 16, 2025
Director general of emergency services Virginia Barcones said temperatures were expected to drop from Tuesday, but for now, weather conditions were “very adverse”.
“Today there are extremely high temperatures with an extreme risk of fires, which complicates the firefighting efforts,” said Ms Barcones.
In the village of Villardevos, Galicia, desperate neighbours have organised to fight the flames on their own with water buckets as the area was left without electricity to power water pumps.
“The fire planes come in from all sides, but they don’t come here,” said Basilio Rodriguez, a resident.
Another resident, Lorea Pascual, said, “it’s insurmountable, it couldn’t be worse”.
Interior ministry data show 27 people have been arrested and 92 were under investigation for suspected arson since June.
The fires in Spain have quickly become the topic of political bickering. Three of the most affected regions – Galicia, Castile and Leon, and Extremadura – are controlled by the opposition conservative Popular Party, with politicians from its far-right junior coalition partner, Vox, often denying climate change.
While political foes have accused Mr Sanchez of not deploying the armed forces to help, his Socialist government has long used the military emergency unit to fight fires. Mr Sanchez said 500 additional troops would be deployed to tackle fires countrywide.
In neighbouring Portugal, wildfires have burned some 155,000 hectares of vegetation so far this year, according to provisional data from the ICNF forestry protection institute – three times the average for this period between 2006 to 2024. About half of that area burned just in the past three days.
Thousands of firefighters were battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest of them near Piodao, a scenic, mountainous area popular with tourists.
Another blaze in Trancoso, further north, has now been raging for eight days. A smaller fire a few miles east claimed a resident’s life on Friday – the first this season. – Reuters
