MADRID: A man died from burns and thousands of people were forced to flee as wildfires swept through parts of Spain on Tuesday, fueled by strong winds during a searing heatwave.
The victim suffered serious burns as winds of up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) per hour whipped the flames through Tres Cantos, a wealthy suburb north of the capital Madrid, officials said.
He later died in hospital, in the first fatality from dozens of wildfires to have hit the country since the heatwave began last week.
The head of the regional government of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, said she “deeply regretted” the man’s death in a message on X.
Hundreds of residents in Tres Cantos were evacuated from their homes.
“In barely 40 minutes, the fire advanced six kilometers,” Carlos Novillo, Madrid’s regional environment chief, told reporters.
By Tuesday morning, regional officials said the blaze had been contained.
Elsewhere, about 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the popular beaches of Tarifa in the southern region of Andalusia.
The wildfire broke out near where a similar blaze forced evacuations earlier this month.
“We managed to save the residential area at the very last second,” said Antonio Sanz, the interior minister in the regional government of Andalusia.
A Civil Guard police officer was injured when struck by a car while helping with the evacuation, he added.
In the northwestern region of Castile and Leon, more than 30 blazes were reported Monday, including one threatening Las Medulas, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its ancient Roman gold mines.
The wildfires coincide with what meteorologists expect to be the most intense day yet of the ongoing heatwave, with all regions under weather alerts.
Forecasters warn of highs around 40 Celsius and overnight lows that remain above 25 Celsius.
Wildfires in Spain kill one and force thousands to flee
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Wildfires in Spain kill one and force thousands to flee
- The victim suffered serious burns and later died in a hospital being the first fatality from dozens of wildfires to have hit the country since the heatwave began last week
- About 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the popular beaches of Tarifa in the southern region of Andalusia
Poland slow to counter Russia’s ‘existential threat’: general
- The general highlighted a low “pace of technical modernization,” compared to increases in the army’s size
- Kukula said the Polish army should reach 500,000 soldiers by 2039
WARSAW: Russia poses an “existential threat” to Poland and its military is lagging, the country’s armed forces chief warned senior officials on Wednesday.
Poland, the largest country on NATO’s eastern flank and a neighbor of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, is the western alliance’s largest spender in relative terms.
This year, the country is allocating 4.8 percent of its GDP to defense, just shy of the alliance’s five percent target to be met by 2035.
However, that record defense spending was not enough to “make up for nearly three decades of chronic underfunding of the armed forces,” General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff, argued at the meeting, which included top officers, the defense minister and Poland’s president.
The general highlighted a low “pace of technical modernization,” compared to increases in the army’s size.
Kukula said the Polish army should reach 500,000 soldiers by 2039, compared with around 210,000 at present.
As a result of a lack of updates, some new Polish units “are not achieving combat readiness,” due to insufficient equipment, rather than a personnel shortage, the general argued.
Meanwhile, he added, “the Russian Federation remains an existential threat to Poland.”
Russia “is constantly reorganizing its forces, drawing on the lessons from its aggression in Ukraine, and building up the capacity for a conventional conflict with NATO countries,” he stressed.
Poland is to receive 43.7 billion euros ($51,5 billion) in loans under the European Union’s Security Action For Europe (SAFE) scheme, designed to strengthen Europe’s defensive capabilities.
Warsaw plans to use these funds to boost domestic arms production.
The Polish government claims that Poland will be able to access SAFE finance even if President Karol Nawrocki — backed by Poland’s conservative-nationalist opposition — vetos a law setting out domestic arrangements for its implementation.
Law and Justice (PiS) — the main opposition party — argues that SAFE could become a new tool for Brussels to place undue pressure on Poland, thanks to a planned mechanism for monitoring the funds, which they claim risks undermining Polish sovereignty.
