A man has died after being run over by a bulldozer he was operating while fighting wildfires in Portugal, bringing the death toll in the country to three, officials said.

Portugal is battling five major wildfires as of August 19, with more than 2,700 firefighters, 902 ground resources, and at least 35 aircraft deployed.

A heatwave is continuing to affect the Iberian Peninsula. Thousands of firefighters have been deployed to battle ongoing blazes and towns have been evacuated. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited affected regions to meet with the heads of emergency teams.

In neighbouring Portugal, where fires are also blazing, another firefighter was killed on Sunday in a "tragic" traffic accident, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said. Fires have also broken out in Greece, France, Turkey and the Balkans as a heatwave has scorched swathes of southern Europe.

The fires have ravaged small, sparsely populated towns in the country's northwest, forcing locals in many cases to act as firefighters. About 2,382 square miles have burned across Spain and Portugal.

Wildfires have ravaged more than 450,000 hectares of land across the Iberian peninsula since the start of the year, setting records in a region particularly hard hit by intensive heatwaves and drought affecting southern Europe.

Spain's worst wave of wildfires on record spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountains and prompted authorities to close part of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

A man was killed while helping fight wildfires that have been scorching Portugal, the country’s civil protection service said Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the fires to three. The man, who worked for a company hired to help the northern municipality of Mirandela fight the fires,