Extreme weather in Europe

“The wind has turned” in the fight against the fires in Spain

The fires in southern Europe continue to hit Spain and Portugal hard, where another firefighter died fighting the flames on Saturday, reports AFP. A total of eight people from the emergency services have died during the summer's record fires.

In Portugal, five villages have been evacuated and a major highway has been closed after two new fires broke out in the central parts of the country, writes local Publico.

Favorable weather has made it easier for the Spanish fire brigade, which according to AFP says that “the wind has turned” in fighting the fires in the northwestern parts of the country.

At the same time, the Spanish government's handling of the natural disaster has become a scandal in the country. It is said that it took up to a week of email contact before they coordinated the fight against the fires, reports El Mundo.

Crisis for Sánchez: Didn't act against the fire for a week

It was "lack of foresight and delayed reactions" that meant that this year's fires in Spain could become one of the worst in the country's history, writes the Spanish El Mundo.

It reportedly took a week from the time the fires reached disaster level until the government wrote to regional authorities to request that land resources be deployed to fight the flames.

Once contact was established, it reportedly took an entire weekend of emails to coordinate the effort.

The scandal is exacerbating the political crisis of confidence in Spain, where both the government and regional governments are accused of refusing to take responsibility for the situation.

"They have been more focused on blaming and insulting each other - while the mountains have burned, which has contributed to increasing social discontent," writes El Mundo's Olga Sanmartín.