At LEAST three people have died, including a Spanish volunteer firefighter and thousands have been displaced as wildfires rage across southern Europe.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed condolences after the death of a firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and Leon region north of Madrid, where thousands have been forced to evacuate.

“The wildfire situation remains serious and taking extra precautions is essential,” Mr Sanchez wrote online.

Evacuation centres were full in parts of central Spain, with some people spending the night outdoors on folding beds.

Fires have spread into rural areas, where residents hosed down their homes in an attempt to protect them.

In Turkey, a forestry worker was killed today while responding to a blaze in the south.

Officials said the worker died in a fire truck accident that left four others injured.

Eighteen people have died in Turkey’s wildfires since late, June including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers in July.

France faced a third straight day of temperatures reaching 42°C as it recovers from massive recent fires in the southern regions.

Resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes.

In Greece, exhausted workers on the island of Chios slept on the roadside after battling flames through the night.

Aircraft were deployed to multiple fires, while Athens sent help to neighbouring Albania, where an 80-year-old man died in a blaze south of Tirana.

In Albania’s southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells.

Heatwaves and soaring temperatures continue across the Mediterranean amid the climate crisis, with natural disasters worsening each year.