A firefighter was killed when his truck overturned in northwestern Spain, authorities said Monday, raising the death toll from more than a week of wildfires across the country to four.
The firefighter and truck involved in the crash were part of the operation battling blazes in the region of Castilla and Leon, the regional government said on X, as Spain reeled from a series of fires fueled by a summer heatwave.
Earlier Sunday, Spain deployed a further 500 soldiers to battle wildfires that have torn through parched woodland during a prolonged spell of scorching weather, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.
The decision to add to the more than 1,400 troops already on wildfire duty came as authorities struggled to contain forest blazes, especially in the northwestern Galicia region and awaited the arrival of promised aircraft reinforcements from other European countries.
Firefighters are tackling 12 major wildfires in Galicia, all of them near the city of Ourense, the head of the Galician regional government, Alfonso Rueda, told a press conference with Sanchez.
