- The Iberian Peninsula is still prey to flames.
- About twenty fires rage simultaneously between Spain and Portugal.
- Several thousand firefighters are mobilized.
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Impossible to advance differently. Spanish firefighters are forced to use a bulldozer to make a passage, and get around flames several meters high, as seen in the video at the top of this article. All night long, they faced these uncontrollable fires, which have been progressing in northwestern Spain for several days.
With the means at hand, residents of Galicia villages try to protect their homes, blinded by a cloud of ash. “We are surrounded by flames and smoke, everyone is afraid, many have abandoned their house”
testifies a woman. Lying on the ground, residents poisoned by the smoke struggles to find their breath.
Spain, Portugal: fifteen simultaneous lightsSource : JT 20h WE
02:03
Spain, Portugal: fifteen simultaneous lights
Even the fire soldiers are exceeded. “There is no more water to turn off, there are so many fires, it’s a disaster”
notes with bitterness one of them. In reinforcement, French Canada have chained the drops, replaced today by Italian planes. In the south of the province, columns of smoke rise everywhere, as noted by the special envoy of TF1. “There are many lights in the region. What worries firefighters are the weather conditions that will get worse during the day. It is expected nearly 40 degrees this Saturday afternoon”
explains Lise Cloix.
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Heat wave in Spain: risk of “very high to extreme” fire on a large part of the country
In total, around twenty lights are raging throughout the territory, but also on the other side of the border. In the east of Portugal, the flames are only a few meters from the houses of a village. You have to do it quickly. Farmers bring quantities of water that seem derisory. Agents shelter everything that could explode, like gas bottles. “”Without them, what would we have become? Courage to the firefighters! “
shouts a woman. In the neighboring commune, the former mayor died while he was fighting the flames. This is the first death linked to these fires in Portugal, while three people have already lost their lives in Spain, including two volunteers who were trying to put out a fire in Castile-et-Leon.
