New Delhi, July 24 -- MADRID - Alessandro Marchi went to San Cataldo in Sicily on Monday to fight a fire. By Tuesday he was dead. He was among three firefighters killed this week as simultaneous blazes burned out of control in Spain, France and Italy, forcing Spain's government to declare a national emergency on Friday morning and prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to activate the European Union's cross-border civil protection mechanism for the first time this season.

By Friday, fires were burning without containment in the Villa del Prado and San Martin de Valdeiglesias communities west of Madrid, in the Gironde department of southwestern France, and across the Sicilian interior. The simultaneous fires in three countries are bei...