Spain is at 'extreme risk' of new forest fires as 14 fires spread.

Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece are battling wildfires as scorching, dry, intense heat-fueled blazes rage across the region, coinciding with major religious holidays as global warming takes its toll on Europe.

Spain faced 14 major fires on Friday, with emergency services chief Virginia Barcones saying temperatures were forecast to rise further over the weekend.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned on Friday that “today will be another very difficult day with a high risk of new fires.”

The state weather agency has placed most of the country under extreme fire danger warnings, particularly in the north and west, where the biggest fires have broken out. The current heatwave, which has seen temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on several days this month, is expected to continue until Monday.

The fires in Galicia closed several highways and disrupted high-speed rail services to Madrid. The European Union's European Forest Fire Information System reported that wildfires in Spain have already burned 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres) this year, an area the size of metropolitan London.

Spain and Portugal celebrated the Feast of the Assumption on Friday, a major Catholic holiday usually marked by family gatherings and processions.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced that the fires raging across Portugal had claimed their first death on Friday, when the former mayor of the eastern town of Planta died while fighting the blaze there.

The president's statement said he "expressed his heartfelt condolences to the mayor of Garda for the death of former mayor Carlos Damaso, who was a victim of the fire in his parish, and asked him to hand him over to his family".

Around 4,000 firefighters in Portugal battled seven active fires, as authorities extended the state of alert until Sunday. The government also asked the European Union for help under its civil protection mechanism.

A day earlier, Spain received two Canadian water bombers from the European Union, the first time it has activated the bloc’s emergency firefighting assistance.

Elsewhere in southern Europe, Greece continued to battle wildfires on the island of Chios for four days. Several people were evacuated overnight as flames spread to the northern part of the island. Two planes and two helicopters dropped water in calm winds early Friday.