In Pictures: Wildfires burn across Europe in dry, hot weather

In a week of record-breaking heat in Europe, countries in the continent’s warmer and drier southern belt have struggled to contain a swath of blazes that have stretched emergency services and blackened skies.

A volunteer uses a tree branch to try and prevent a forest fire from reaching homes in Casal da Quinta, outside Leiria, central Portugal (Joao Henriques/AP)

In Greece, where intense fires continue to burn in Penteli, 16 miles north-east of the capital Athens, firefighters were seen evacuating vulnerable citizens as they battled the blaze.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of residents were ordered to leave as the fire spilled into its second day despite a 500-strong firefighting crew at the scene.

The skull of a goat lies on the ground after a forest fire on a farm in San Martin de Tabara, north-west Spain (Bernat Armangue/AP)

A firefighter sprays water in the Mount of Penteli, Greece (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

Fires have torn through much of the continent, with blazes occupying emergency services in Portugal, Spain, France, England and Germany as the nations buckled under the unusually high temperatures.

Jaume Almirall checks the damage at his swimming pool, burnt during a wildfire near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, Spain (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

Some relief did come for many nations in the south-west on Wednesday as wildfires began to ease, making visible the scars of the intense, dry heat and the fires it fuelled.

A fire in north-east Spain gave way to thousands of charred trees.

People work to extinguish flames as wildfires get close to a house in Tabara, north-west Spain (Bernat Armangue/AP)

A National Republican Guard firefighter pulls a hose while putting out a forest fire in the village of Rebolo, near Ansiao, central Portugal (Armando Franca/AP)

In the west of the country, a skull of a goat lay among the ash and dead leaves.

Many residents were coming back to burnt homes and belongings, with even a swimming pool not spared from the flames.

A firefighting plane drops water in the area of Drafi, east of Athens, Greece (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

Earlier in the week, clouds of thick black smoke covered the skies in south-west France as two massive fires in the Gironde region also forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

In Portugal, where wildfires ravaged the country last week, more than 3,000 firefighters battled alongside ordinary citizens trying to save their homes.