LISBON/MADRID, Monday, September 8, 2025 (WNP): Hundreds of firefighters were deployed in Portugal and Spain on Monday to contain fresh wildfires, as the Iberian Peninsula continues to reel from one of its most destructive fire seasons in years, civil protection authorities said.

The largest blaze erupted in Seia, central Portugal, where some 600 firefighters were battling flames driven by strong winds, forcing road closures and threatening nearby communities, the civil protection agency reported.

“The priority is to protect homes,” a spokesperson told Portugal’s Lusa news agency. Police later confirmed the arrest of a suspect accused of starting the fire.

In neighboring Spain, authorities confined residents of the small village of Castromil in the northwest on Saturday as a precaution against an advancing blaze. Officials in the Castilla y León region said strong winds had reignited one of the major fires that had swept through the area last month.

Spain only lifted a weeks-long state of emergency on Sunday following August’s catastrophic fires, which killed four people and scorched more than 300,000 hectares – one of the worst outbreaks in recent history.

Portugal also endured a devastating August, when wildfires killed four people and injured several others. According to the National Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation, about 254,000 hectares were destroyed, marking the country’s worst toll since 2017.