Flames continued to sweep through vast swathes of western Spain on Monday, where exhausted firefighters, reinforced by soldiers and water-dropping planes, struggled to contain more than twenty major blazes. Officials say the destruction has already surpassed every previous record.
The crisis has been compounded by weeks of searing heat and parched landscapes across southern Europe. Spain alone has lost more than 343,000 hectares of woodland and farmland this year — an area larger than the size of Luxembourg. Portugal, too, is burning, with more than 200,000 hectares reduced to ash since January.
For many, the scale of loss is almost impossible to absorb. Ash hangs in the air over Galicia, Castile and León, and Extremadura, where entire villages have been forced to evacuate. “We had to run because the fire was coming from every direction — above us, below us, everywhere,” said Isidoro, 83, standing in what remained of his community in Valdeorras.
Others spoke less of escape than of abandonment. “Not a single helicopter, not one plane,” complained Patricia Vila in Ourense province. “Nobody came.”
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The toll has been heavy. In Spain, a firefighter died late Sunday when his truck overturned on a mountain road in Castile and León, days after two volunteers in the same region were killed. A Romanian stable hand lost his life trying to save horses north of Madrid. Across the border in Portugal, the president confirmed another firefighter’s death in a crash that left two colleagues seriously injured. In total, at least six people have been killed in the two countries since the fires began.
Even as France, Italy, Slovakia, and the Netherlands send planes to help Spain, and Sweden and Morocco aid Portugal, conditions remain perilous. Thick smoke, visible from space, has often grounded aircraft, while temperatures as high as 45C have left hillsides tinder-dry.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro described the past weeks as a battle against “unprecedented severity.” “We are at war,” he declared, “and we must triumph in this fight.”
Spain’s defence minister, Margarita Robles, called the challenge “very difficult, very complicated,” though meteorologists now predict the worst of the heat may soon ease.
But for those who have watched their forests, farms, and homes consumed, the prospect of cooler air offers little consolation. In village after village, the land is scarred black, the smell of smoke lingers, and entire communities are left to reckon with the sense that the summer is far from over.