Spain, Europe and wildfires
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By Guillermo Martinez and Ana Cantero VILLARDEVÓS (Reuters) -Scorching heat hampered efforts to contain 20 major wildfires across Spain on Sunday, prompting the government to deploy an additional 500 troops from the military emergency unit to support firefighting operations.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.
France sent two teams of 100 firefighters, who were “currently arriving,” Virginia Barcones Sanz, the director general of civil protection and emergencies in Spain, told reporters on Monday. Germany is deploying a team of 66 firefighters with 21 vehicles, while Finland is sending 30 firefighters, she said.
Spain's worst wave of wildfires in at least two decades spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountain range on Monday and prompted authorities to close part of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.
DPA International on MSN2h
Record area of land burnt as Spain battles worst fires in decades
Spain is seeing its most devastating forest fires in over 20 years, with 3,440 square kilometres of land destroyed by more than 220 fires so far this year, according to new EU estimates. The previous record registered by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) was 3,
Up to 20 major wildfires are burning in total, the majority in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia, while there are several blazes in neighbouring Portugal.
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.
VILLANUEVA DE LA SIERRA, Spain, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Spain battled 14 major fires driven by high winds and aggravated by heat on Friday as authorities warned of "unfavourable conditions" to tackle flames that have already killed seven people and burned an area the size of 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 Sanchez has said.The decision to add to the more than 1,
FOUR people have died in Spain as ferocious wildfires continue to burn into their ninth day. More than 40 fires are still active, and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.
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