A Spanish man in his 50s is in hospital being treated for serious burns after escaping a blaze that consumed his excavator, as he tried to dig up a trench to protect his town from wildfire in the north-western region of Castilla y León.
A video of the incident, which occurred in the town of Tábara in Zamora province on Monday afternoon, shows the excavator being engulfed by flames and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
A few seconds later, a man comes out of the blaze with burnt clothes and the flames just behind him. After stumbling, he gets back up to run and is able to escape the inferno.
Emergency services reported that the man had suffered severe burns. He was initially treated by the local medical centre, but was flown by helicopter to the Río Hortega University hospital in Valladolid.
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