This year is turning into one of the worst fire seasons in recent memory in Europe. Firefighters are struggling to contain out-of-control wildfires in western Spain and Portugal.

Emergency services are under strain due to the ‘worst’ fires in Portugal in years, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego says.

Two firefighters have died across Spain and Portugal as the Iberian peninsula grapples with devastating wildfires exacerbated by an enduring heatwave. Thousands of firefighters have been deployed across southern Europe in recent weeks to beat back a series of deadly blazes.

More than 343,000 hectares of land – the equivalent of nearly half a million football pitches – destroyed this year in Spain, in new record.

The Iberian Peninsula is still battling widespread wildfires on Monday as the total death toll rises to six, with four in Spain and two in Portugal. Spain is battling more than 40 active wildfires, with two-thirds concentrated in the Castilla and Leon region, according to the daily El Pais.

High temperatures in Spain have sparked multiple wildfires of particular concern in Galicia, Leon and Caceres. Local media report up to 13 active blazes in the region. The wildfires have already burned more than 115,000 hectares of land, including over 50,000 in Galicia alone - most in the province of Ourense, the hardest hit so far.

Wildfires in Spain and Portugal have claimed the lives of two firefighters, increasing the death toll in neighbouring countries.According to France24, the authorities on Monday, August 18, said that two firefighters were killed in Spain

Spain’s Pedro Sanchez called for a nationwide pact uniting all levels of government to combat what he called an accelerating climate emergency as wildfires raged in several regions of the country.

A fossilized tooth recovered from the Galería site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) confirms that reindeer (Rangifer) inhabited this area of the Iberian Peninsula between 243,000 and 300,000 years ago.

Thousands of firefighters backed by the military and water-bombing aircraft on Monday battled dozens of wildfires across Spain and Portugal, as the death toll