Spanish troops are assisting firefighters battling a raging blaze that has emptied out Andalusian villages and burned through forestland for days.
Already, the fires have forced hundreds of people out of their homes in Spain’s south. Six more villages and towns were evacuated Sunday.
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“We have talked for a long time about the consequences of abandoning the environment, or climate change. Today, we are living them,” Juan Sánchez, director of the operations center at Andalusia’s forest- fire agency, told reporters.
At least 365 firefighters were tackling “the most complex fire we have seen in recent times,” he added.
Wildfires rage across Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Russia and Lebanon
Billowing smoke could be seen rising from the Sierra Bermeja mountains in footage that came from emergency workers digging through the woods to contain the flames. Helicopters overhead dropped water into the valley.
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Since the wildfire broke out Wednesday around the resort town of Estepona, it has torched more than 6,000 hectares, or nearly 15,000 acres, of forest. A 44-year-old firefighter died last week while battling the wind-driven flames.
Spain’s military emergency unit deployed 260 soldiers Sunday to help shield nearby towns, the Defense Ministry said.
Some of those who left their homes before the flames could reach them sheltered in a sports stadium overnight.
Carmen Crespo, the regional environment chief, had questioned whether the wildfire could have been started deliberately and promised an investigation.
A heat wave scorching much of southern Europe this summer fueled wildfires that forced thousands to flee and engulfed forests from Italy to Greece and Turkey. Many scientists have blamed climate change.
And while infernos burned across Siberia in Russia’s north, unforgiving flames have also exhausted firefighters in California in recent months.