LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Spain is deploying 500 more soldiers to help battle wildfires that have ravaged parched woodlands during a prolonged heat wave, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. Authorities are struggling to contain forest blazes, especially in the northwestern Galicia region. Firefighters are facing 12 major wildfires near the city of Ourense. The fires in Spain this year have burned an area roughly as big as metropolitan London. Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.
By Barry Hatton, Associated Press
Banner image: Firefighters battle a wildfire in Veiga das Meas, northwestern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)
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