The civil defence service said the two fatalities were a handicapped man who was trapped in his home, and his wife who tried to save him.

The state of emergency was applied to the regions of Topolovgrad and Svilengrad, where several villages were affected.

A government report presented last Thursday said 1,360 fires had destroyed 34,000 hectares of forest since the beginning of the year, resulting in a loss of 3.5 million levas (1.8 million euros, 2.5 million dollars).