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.

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.

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.