Spain Calls in More Soldiers to Fight Wildfires

Spain is deploying 500 more soldiers and European allies are rushing firefighters and equipment to bolster emergency teams struggling to battle blazes that remain out of control around the country.

The reinforcements bring the number of Spanish military personnel aiding local firefighters to about 4,000. Even with the extra support, the searing temperatures are complicating attempts to squelch blazes that have already burned more acres than any fires in Spain in recent years.

Officials consider 23 active fires to be especially serious, with many of the most worrying blazes mainly in the northwest of the country.

The Iberian Peninsula is facing some of the most devastating wildfires in southern Europe, which is enduring one of its worst fire seasons in recent memory as the region swelters under life-threatening heat.

Spain’s military emergency unit “has not seen anything like it in its 20 years” of activity, Defense Minister Margarita Robles told the Cadena SER radio network on Monday.

“Until the heat wave subsides, we won’t be able to end this situation,” she continued, adding that this year’s fires had “different characteristics due to climate change.”

Temperatures in Galicia had cooled on Monday after rising to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 43 Celsius) at the peak of the heat wave.

Javier Rodríguez, an official at the State Meteorological Agency, said the current hot spell, which he expected to end on Monday, had lasted more than two weeks, making it the third-longest since 1975, when such data collection began.

Temperatures on Sunday rose to 114 degrees Fahrenheit in Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain.

Analyses have shown that climate change has increased the likelihood of such abnormally high temperatures, which have contributed to the intensity of the wildfires this summer by making vegetation drier and more likely to ignite.

The fires have killed at least eight people in recent days across southern Europe, some in related vehicle accidents, and injured many others, including firefighters.

Firefighters in Greece were facing 14 active blazes, according to a statement by the country’s fire services issued on Monday that did not specify where the fires were burning. In Portugal, firefighters were battling several wildfires on Monday; a firefighter died on Sunday in a traffic incident while driving toward a fire, the authorities wrote on social media.

In Spain, an emergency worker who was helping fight fires died when his vehicle overturned and fell down a steep hillside in Espinoso de Compludo, in the northwest, the regional authorities said.

The scale of the devastation in Spain is immense: The fires have burned more than 3,440 square kilometers (about 1,330 square miles) of land so far this year, the largest annual amount in the country since 2006, according to European Union data.

Spain’s military emergency unit said on Sunday that about 1,400 soldiers were already in “direct attack” to fight the flames and another 2,000 were in support roles. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday night that the extra 500 soldiers would bolster the effort, bringing the total to about 4,000, not including local firefighters.

Spain has received help from several countries after appealing for aid from the European Union.

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.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said on Monday that more than 31,000 people had been evacuated from their homes because of the fires since Aug. 12. The police have arrested 31 people and are investigating another 92 for a possible role in setting fires, the ministry said.

Parts of the Camino de Santiago, the famed religious pilgrimage trail, were closed because of the fires, the regional authorities said.