Authorities have evacuated thousands of residents from dozens of villages. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Joaquín Ramírez of Technosylva, a Spanish company that specialises in prevention and response to wildfires, attributed this year’s litany of fires to “a combination of abandonment of rural areas, abandonment of managing [the land] and the stress exerted on our forest areas”.

Spain is preparing for a national emergency as wildfires sweep across southern Europe after days of relentless heat.

The fire was brought under control overnight, after a blaze in the Tres Cantos area killed one person and prompted evacuations, the authorities said.View on euronews

MADRID (Reuters) -Firefighters have contained a wildfire near the Spanish capital Madrid, in the Tres Cantos area, which injured one person and prompted the evacuation of 180 people, regional authorities said on Tuesday.

Spain travel disruption wildfires halt high-speed trains in Galicia, stranding passengers and affecting routes to Santiago and Madrid this week.

Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece battled ongoing wildfires Friday, an important religious holiday in all three countries, as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes.

A second volunteer firefighter has died after battling a wildfire in the northern Spanish province of Leon, while police arrested a man for allegedly starting a separate blaze as the country faced one of its worst summers for fires in 20 years.