SPAIN: Three people have died in northern Spain and the army has been called in to help fight more than 100 fires raging out of control across Galicia and Catalonia. France has sent four hydroplanes to help the overstretched Spanish firefighters.
The deaths occurred near Pontevedra in the northwest of the country, where two women - a mother and her daughter - died when their car was cut off by flames as they tried to escape.
A 74-year-old man died nearby on Sunday night as he fought to protect his smallholding when it was threatened by fires.
Several hundred people were evacuated from their homes and from campsites when dozens of separate fires swept out of control over the weekend. Fires threatened Cadaqués, the village made famous by Spanish painter Salvador Dali, before being brought under control. Many roads, including the motorway linking Spain with France along the Mediterranean coast, were cut off when thick smoke made driving impossible or when the fires burning on both sides of the road made them too dangerous.
The flames swept through hills and woodland in hundreds of different areas, in many cases coming dangerously close to towns and cities, including La Coruña, Pontevedra, Vigo and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and in many parts of Catalonia, even coming close to the city of Barcelona yesterday morning.
One man stood weeping as he looked at his blackened olive trees, which he has tended throughout his working life, and at his small house alongside them. "This has been my life's work," he said.
Exhausted firefighters, professional and volunteers, are working around the clock, and often find themselves completely overwhelmed. No sooner have they controlled one fire than another one breaks out nearby.
Any tool, from branches of trees, domestic hose pipes, farm implements and even hockey sticks, are being used in the fight.
"When fires break out in four or five different spots, it is hard to know where to start. You can't divide yourself into four," said one worker.
Authorities believe that nearly all of the fires were deliberately started by "irresponsible and criminal" arsonists and a few by gross negligence such as throwing a cigarette from a moving car.
They describe the arsonists as "terrorists" and the civil guard fire investigation squad has sent teams to both areas to work alongside regional police forces.
The fires come after one of the hottest months of July on record in Spain.