MADRID: Portugal suffered its first death Friday (Aug 15) from the fires raging there, as Spain’s weather agency warned of a “very high to extreme risk” of more wildfires there during Europe’s intense heatwave.
Further east, Greece was still fighting blazes on one Aegean island, but the situation had improved for several other southern European countries.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced the death of the former mayor of the eastern town of Guarda, Carlos Damaso, who had been fighting the fires.
The president said he had cut short his holidays and returned to work, joining a meeting of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority.
For days now, several thousand firefighters have been battling fires in various parts of the country.
Portugal, like Spain, has invoked the EU’s civil protection mechanism to ask for help, requesting four firefighting aircraft to use until Monday, its presidency said on X.
In Spain, three people have died in the fires, including two young volunteers in their thirties who lost their lives trying to extinguish a blaze in the Castile and Leon area.
One of them, Jaime Aparicio Vidales, was buried in the town of Quintanilla de Florez, Zamora province, Castile and Leon, on Friday.
