Spain is preparing for a national emergency as wildfires sweep across southern Europe after days of relentless heat.

Spiridon was one of three people to die in Spain’s wildfires this week, each of them ordinary people who saw the flames and rushed to help.

A second volunteer firefighter has died after battling a wildfire in the northern Spanish province of Leon, while police arrested a man for allegedly starting a separate blaze as the country faced one of its worst summers for fires in 20 years.

Spain travel disruption wildfires halt high-speed trains in Galicia, stranding passengers and affecting routes to Santiago and Madrid this week.

Wildfires in Madrid burn 26 horses to death as record-breaking heatwave sweeps across Europe - A 55-year-old man reportedly died trying to save the horses

Temperatures climbed above 100 F from Portugal to France to the Balkans, while half of Europe was battling its fourth consecutive month of drought.

PATRAS, Greece,/MADRID (Reuters) -Wildfires caused by arsonists or thunderstorms and fanned by a heatwave and strong winds wreaked destruction across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning homes and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee.

In Greece at Europe's southernmost tip, wildfires in some cases fanned by gale-force winds forced the evacuation of several villages and a hotel on the tourist islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea along with four other parts of the mainland.