Soldiers continue to help firefighters across Spain, including in and around the Galicia and Extremadura regions, following several major wildfires - and more are feared

Cooler air and rising humidity may give Spain’s scorched regions a reprieve, but the scale of devastation underscores a hotter political and climatic reality.

In neighbouring Portugal, where fires are also blazing, another firefighter was killed on Sunday in a "tragic" traffic accident, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said. Fires have also broken out in Greece, France, Turkey and the Balkans as a heatwave has scorched swathes of southern Europe.

The fires have ravaged small, sparsely populated towns in the country's northwest, forcing locals in many cases to act as firefighters. About 2,382 square miles have burned across Spain and Portugal.

The country’s weather agency expects temperatures to fall and humidity to rise, but adverse conditions remain in south.

Spain is seeing its most devastating forest fires in over 20 years, with 3,440 square kilometres of land destroyed by more than 220 fires so far this year, according to new EU estimates. The previous record registered by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) was 3,

So far, sparsely populated areas have been hardest hit, but thousands of residents have already been evacuated.

VILLANUEVA DE LA SIERRA, Spain, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Spain battled 14 major fires driven by high winds and aggravated by heat on Friday as authorities warned of "unfavourable conditions" to tackle flames that have already killed seven people and burned an area the size of London.

Fires in Galicia have ravaged small, sparsely populated towns, forcing locals in many cases to step in before firefighters arrive. Firefighting units from Germany arrived in northern Spain on Tuesday to help fight the blazes, Spain's Interior Ministry ...