Portuguese firefighters contain blazes

A firefighter retreats from a forest fire near Fraldeu, central Portugal, on Tuesday. Forest fires continued to ravage Portugal on Tuesday, as firefighters battled on the ground and pilots struggled to steer water-dumping aircraft through thick plumes of smoke darkening the skies. PHOTO: AP

Cooler temperatures and higher air humidity levels early yesterday helped firefighters in parched Portugal contain more than a dozen blazes which raged across the country but officials warned that the risk of new fires remained high.

Five fires were burning out of control in the thick-wooded center and north of the country, down from 21 late Tuesday, with the largest fire burning in a forest near Coimbra, Portugal's third-largest city.

The fire, which has burned since Sunday, forced the evacuation of around 60 people from a village near the central town of Penela but firefighters said they hoped to bring it under control later yesterday.

"The intensity of the fire is diminishing considerably, let's see if we are a bit luckier today," the fire chief of Penela, Mario Lourenco, told radio TSF.

Some 1,500 firefighters and 600 soldiers backed by over 400 vehicles are involved in the effort against the flames in Portugal, facing its worst drought since 1945, the civil protection agency said.

Nine water-dropping aircraft from five fellow EU countries -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands -- are in Portugal to help firefighters contain the nation's worst outbreak of blazes so far this year.

The agriculture ministry's Forest Fire Prevention Agency said six of the nation's 18 administrative districts faced a "maximum" risk of wildfires while another seven faced a "very high" risk, the second-highest alert level.

Temperatures were forecast to rise to between 25?C and 34?C across the country yesterday, compared to highs of 36?C reached the day before, the national weather office said.

Wildfires have destroyed at least 180,000 hectares of land so far this year, General Luis Ferreira do Amaral, the head of the National Forest Fire Authority, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The fires have killed 15 people, including 10 firefighters, and destroyed more than 100 homes and nearly 500 farm buildings, according to estimates by the interior ministry.