Spain suffers third wildfire death, Greece beats back flames

Spain on Thursday mourned its third wildfire death this week and Greece began beating back a blaze threatening its third-largest city as an unrelenting heatwave stoked tinderbox conditions in southern Europe. The extreme summer heat, which scientists say human-driven climate change is lengthening and intensifying, has fuelled blazes and stretched firefighters across the region, including Portugal and the Balkans. The fires have particularly scorched Spain, devouring over 388,000 acres this year - more than triple the area burned during the same period in 2024. Spanish authorities said one person battling flames in the northwestern Castile and Leon region had died, taking the toll to three after earlier reporting fatalities there and near Madrid this week. Climate change is fuelling larger, more intense wildfires like those in Spain that can alter upper-atmosphere dynamics and create unpredictable winds, making fire behaviour harder to forecast, said Antonio Jordan Lopez, a wildfire expert at the University of Seville. SEE ALSO P5