Spain's worst wave of wildfires on record spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountains on Monday and prompted authorities to close part of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

Joaquín Ramírez of Technosylva, a Spanish company that specialises in prevention and response to wildfires, attributed this year’s litany of fires to “a combination of abandonment of rural areas, abandonment of managing [the land] and the stress exerted on our forest areas”.

Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece battled ongoing wildfires Friday, an important religious holiday in all three countries, as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes.

The European Union is sending two planes to help Spain tackle raging wildfires, after the country activated an EU disaster assistance mechanism for fires

The key to preventing forest fires is creating a rural economy based on the use of forests. While this would generate much-needed employment in “la España vaciada” – “hollowed-out Spain”, the name given to the country’s depopulated rural areas – it also costs money. It is therefore essential to invest in forests.

Authorities have evacuated thousands of residents from dozens of villages. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Some 216,000 hectares of land has burned in Portugal and two firefighters have died, while deadly wildfires have ravaged 348,000 hectares in Spain, bringing the death toll up to four.