Spanish authorities have announced that two people died in the wildfire as temperature continues to rise in Europe.
According to Independent, authorities on Wednesday, July 2, said that quickly spreading wildfire in the rural province of Lleida has claimed two lives before the firefighters brought it under control.
The massive wildfire in the northeastern region of Spain, Catalonia, produced a huge plume of smoke and ashes that soared to 14,000 metres high, becoming the largest registered fire of the region.
The fast-moving blazes at one point begin to spread rapidly at 28 kilometres per hour, making it one of the fastest fires in Europe.
Catalan regional president Salvador Illa noted, “Wildfires today are not like they were before. These are extremely dangerous. From the very first moment, it was considered to be beyond the capacity of extinction.”
“I mean that not even with two or three times the number of firefighters, they have told me, it would have been possible to put out,” he added.
Besides the casualties in the small village of Cosco in the county of La Segarra, two firefighters also sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The regional officials confirmed that the two people killed in the wildfire were a farmer and one of his workers.
The fire burnt a total of 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of land, mostly farmland. Besides that, at least three old farmhouses and some other farm buildings were also affected before the firefighters gained control over the blaze with rainstorms.
