MADRID, Aug 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spanish investigators said they had arrested four people suspected of starting forest fires, taking the total number of accused this summer to 30.
Three of the latest arrests were in the northwest Castille-e-Leon region where about 40,000 hectares of land has been devastated by fire, the civil guard said. Two volunteers have died battling the flames there this week.
One man was detained Thursday over a fire in which 3,000 hectares of land burned around Puercas de Aliste in Castille-e-Leone, the civil guard said.
Another suspect was arrested on Wednesday over six forest fires between July 19 and August 3 around the southern resort of Malaga.
“Some of these fires were started very close to homes,” said a civil guard statement.
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told RAC1 radio on Wednesday that 25 other people had been detained for starting fires this summer and that many had been intentional.
Meanwhile, one person battling a wildfire in northwest Leon region has died, authorities said Thursday, raising the toll from the summer’s fire season to three.
“Today, we mourn a new death of a person who was part of the firefighting operation in the province of Leon, more specifically in the Valderia region,” Nicanor Sen Velez, prefect for Castile and Leon, wrote on X.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska confirmed the death to the public broadcaster, while offering condolences to the victim’s family, colleagues and community.
The death comes just after the interior minister had appealed to the European Union for help in fighting the fires.
The government was particularly calling for two water-bombing planes after regional authorities said almost 6,000 people from 26 localities had been evacuated from their homes.
Thursday’s death comes after a man had died due to severe burns he received in a blaze some 25 kilometres from Madrid.
That same evening, a 35-year-old volunteer died while fighting another blaze in the Leon region.
Spain is among several European countries experiencing scorching temperatures this week that fuel wildfires and which scientists say human-induced climate change is intensifying.
A total of 199 wildfires have scorched nearly 98,784 hectares (244,100 acres) across Spain this year — more than double the area burned during the same period in 2024. — NNN-AGENCIES