Spain deploys 500 more troops to wildfire fight, joining 1,400 already sent

Wildfires in Spain this year have burned 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres), the European Forest Fire Information System suggests, an areas roughly as big as metropolitan London.

Spain is deploying a further 500 soldiers to battle wildfires that have torn through parched woodland during a prolonged spell of scorching weather, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Sunday.

The decision to add to the more than 1,400 troops already on wildfire duty came as authorities struggled to contain forest blazes, especially in the northwestern Galicia region, and awaited the arrival of promised aircraft reinforcements from other European countries.

The government’s move also came amid dramatic scenes of residents armed with garden hoses and buckets joining forces to try and save their homes from encroaching blazes.

Firefighters are tackling 12 major wildfires in Galicia, all of them near the city of Ourense, the head of the Galician regional government Alfonso Rueda told a press conference with Sánchez.

“Homes are still under threat so we have lockdowns in place and are carrying out evacuations,” Rueda said. Galicia has been battling the spreading flames for more than a week.

Temperatures in Spain could reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Sunday, the Spanish national weather agency AEMET said.

On Saturday, the maximum temperature was 44.7 degrees Celsius (112.46 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Cordoba, it said.

“This Sunday, when extraordinarily high temperatures are expected, the danger of wildfires is extreme in most of the country,” AEMET said on the social platform X.