A VOLUNTEER firefighter has lost his life to the wildfires sweeping across Leon and Zamora provinces after being engulfed by flames whilst battling to save his beloved village.
Abel Ramos Falagan, 35, died on Tuesday evening when shifting winds sent two walls of fire racing towards him as he worked to create firebreaks near the evacuated village of Quintana y Congosto in Leon province, El Pais report.
The construction worker, originally from the tiny 215-resident village but living in nearby La Bañeza, had rushed to help when smoke began rising from the massive blaze that started in Molezuelas de la Carballeda, Zamora, before spreading uncontrolled into Leon.
Ramos volunteered his own brush-cutting equipment and rented additional machinery before presenting himself to the emergency command post. Officials deployed him to clear terrain along a forest road to prevent the fire’s advance.
A friend who brought him water around 5.30pm recalled: “They were trying to create a backfire so the front wouldn’t advance.” Just over an hour later, changing winds sealed his fate.
Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, Castilla y Leon’s Environment Minister, confirmed that Ramos was ‘enveloped by two tongues of fire’ at approximately 7pm. He died hours later from his injuries.
His companion Jaime suffered severe burns and remains hospitalised.
READ MORE: Volunteer firefighter dies as 8,000 people are evacuated due to wildfires in Spain
Ramos, who was vice-president of a motorcycle club in La Bañeza and organised local rallies, was remembered by friends as ‘very committed’ to his community.
Despite living elsewhere, his roots remained strong in Quintana y Congosto, where he regularly provided construction machinery for local festivals and community projects.
The blaze, which started on Sunday, is shaping up to be one of the largest recorded in Spain so far.
The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) reported that it has a perimeter of 38,000 hectares as of Wednesday night – almost the size of Madrid, although it does not necessarily mean that everything within it has been destroyed.
Almost 4,000 residents have been evacuated across 23 separate locations in both Leon and Zamora.
To put it into context, the largest fire on record was the Minas de Riotinto fire, which burned 29,867 hectares in the provinces of Sevilla and Huelva in the summer of 2004.
Ramos’s death comes as Spain battles one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with Europe on track for its worst wildfire season amid record temperatures surpassing 43C.
READ MORE: Forecasters say current heatwave will run until ‘probably’ Monday in Spain
The Leon blaze is just one of several major wildfires that have torn across Spain in recent days, including blazes near Tres Cantos, a wealthy suburb north of Madrid, in Tarifa where over 2,000 people including a large number of tourists were evacuated, around Carucedo in Castile and Leon region, and at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Las Medulas.
It is the second confirmed fatality from the current wave of fires after an employee of a Spanish equestrian centre suffered serious burns and died in hospital in Tres Cantos, fuelled by winds of up to 70 kilometres per hour.
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The fire has devastated both villages of Quintana y Congosto – in the former, flames tore through homes, leaving only façades standing whilst roof gutters hang twisted and windows lie shattered across the streets.
The evacuated villages remain shrouded in smoke, with emergency crews still working to contain hotspots.
Regional President Alfonso Fernandez Mañueco has promised the regional government will cover all costs from the catastrophic fires, though locals remain sceptical given unfulfilled promises following the devastating 2022 Sierra de la Culebra fires in Zamora.
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