As European heat wave persists, some countries continue wildfire battle
Global News
Spain is fighting 14 major fires, while almost 4,000 firefighters in Portugal are battling blazes and Greece's Fire Service is on alert outside Athens.
Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece continued to battle wildfires Friday on a public holiday in all three countries as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes.
Spain was fighting 14 major fires, according to Virginia Barcones, general director of emergency services. Temperatures were expected to climb over the weekend.
“Today will once again be a very tough day, with an extreme risk of new fires,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X.
The national weather agency AEMET warned of extreme fire risk in most of the country, including where the largest blazes were burning in the north and west. A heatwave which brought temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on several days this month was expected to last through Monday.
Fires in the Galicia region forced the closure of several highways. The high speed rail line connecting it to Spain’s capital, Madrid, remained suspended.
The fires in Spain this year have burned 158,000 hectares or 610 square miles, according to the European Union’s European Forest Fire Information System. That is an area roughly as big as metropolitan London.
In both Spain and Portugal it was the Feast of the Assumption, a major Catholic holiday usually marked by family gatherings and religious processions.
In Portugal, nearly 4,000 firefighters were battling fires on Friday. Seven major fires were active. Authorities extended the state of alert until Sunday, amid high temperatures expected to last through the weekend.
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