Most of those evacuated were able to go home Monday afternoon -- but not before the blaze had left five dead and ravaged some 1,300 hectaresacres) of land, local authorities said.

The incident occurred as another three Spaniards fell victim to heatstroke, taking the death toll from the heatwave sweeping the country to 22.

Two further fires which had started earlier in the day -- one at Gallifa near Barcelona and another down the Mediterranean coast at Albiol, near Tarragona -- caused some 300 people to be evacuated late Monday afternoon, fire brigade sources said, as authorities moved to prevent the day's death toll from rising.

Catalan executive deputy leader Arturo Mas told a press conference in Barcelona that firefighters tackling Sunday night's blaze found the bodies of the five victims, the first fatalities in this summer's wildfires in Spain, just 100 metres (yards) from their home in the village of Sant Llorenc Savall.

"We presume the five died of asphyxia," said Mas, explaining that the victims were believed to have rushed from their house into an area already shrouded by thick smoke.

Mas, who said investigations were underway as to the exact cause of the deaths, would not comment on the victims' identities until family members had been contacted.

However, Spanish radio reported the dead, four adults and a child, came from the same family.

More than 500 people had been evacuated Sunday night around the Catalan localities of Comabella and Granera as a safety precaution while 80 fire engines and 17 aircraft fought the flames.

The fire, the worst in the Catalonia region in a summer which has seen dozens of major fires wreak havoc in Spain and, more particularly, Portugal, is thought to have started Sunday afternoon in an oak forest in the Sant Llorenc de Munt i l'Obac national park.

By early afternoon, the fire was still burning but officials said it was sufficiently under control for local people to return home.

Around half of the destroyed land comprised part of the park, a designated area of natural beauty.

Catalan emergency workers remained on alert Monday afternoon, officials said, amid reports that a fire some 60 kilometres (40 miles) at Gallifa north of Barcelona may have been started deliberately.

So far this summer, wildfires have scorched more than 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of forest and scrubland in Spain, with the west and southwest, particularly Extremadura province, hardest hit.

Aside from coping with the fires, Spain has been wilting under a prolonged heatwave which has now killed 22 people inside a fortnight, the majority of them elderly.

Monday's victims were two pensioners in the northern city of Bilbao and a 37-year-old man in the southern city of Jerez, health officials said.

TERRA.WIRE