STOCKHOLM: Swedish firefighters were battling on Tuesday a massive forest fire described as the worst in living memory which has engulfed homes, left one man dead and sent hundreds fleeing their homes.France and Italy were sending in specialised firefighting aircraft to help douse the fast-moving blaze ravaging a vast area in central Sweden.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the hardest hit region around the town of Sala on Monday night, according to local media, and thousands more were put on alert on Tuesday to prepare to leave their homes at short notice.

Firefighters found one man burned to death on Tuesday on a small road near Sala, which lies around 170 kilometres northwest of Stockholm.

And a truck driver with a timber cargo was admitted to intensive care with severe burns when his vehicle was encircled by flames.

“It was thick with smoke and I heard the forest was blazing. They were water bombing just above where we live,” Tommy Persson, one of the evacuees, told Swedish news agency TT.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2014