Man Trying to Save Town From Wildfire Narrowly Escapes

A Spanish man who had been digging a trench to protect his town from a wildfire was hospitalized with serious burns Monday—but video shows that Angel Martin Arjona is very lucky to be alive. Arjona, who owns a construction warehouse, was overtaken by flames in a field near Tabara, northwest Spain, Reuters reports. He got out of the digger and managed to run out of the flames, escaping with his clothes still burning.

The fire "could have burnt everything, absolutely everything," says Arjano's friend Juan Lozano. "It did not because there are good professionals and people who have the balls to protect us." Record-breaking heat has fueled wildfires across southern Europe in recent days and the heat wave has extended as far as Britain. At least two people have been killed in Spanish wildfires and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in Spain and southern France, the AP reports. (More wildfires stories.)