40 die in fires in Portugal, Spain as rain helps rescue
BARCELONA, Spain — Rain and lower temperatures are helping emergency teams in Portugal and Spain fight the forest fires that killed at least 40 people over the weekend.
Civil Protection authorities say wildfires in Portugal were under control by Tuesday morning, after at least 36 people died and dozens were injured.
Both countries began three days of national mourning on Tuesday.
In northwest Spain, where four people have died in the fires, regional authorities in Galicia say 27 forest fires were still out of control on Tuesday, seven of them close to inhabited areas.
Investigations are still underway to find the cause for the late-season wave of hundreds of forest fires, which officials in both countries are blaming mostly on arsonists.
The 36 deaths in Portugal, which were confirmed by the national civil protection agency and included a month-old baby, come four months after 64 people were killed in the deadliest fire in the country’s history in June.
“There are still places where security services have not yet managed to reach,” civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said, adding that the toll remained preliminary for that reason.
She said seven people were still missing due to the fires, which have also injured at least 63 people, including 16 critically.
The 524 registered outbreaks of fire in Portugal, by far the most since 2006, were caused by “higher than average temperatures for the season and the cumulative effect of drought,” Gaspar said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa reafirmed his pledges to prevent new tragedies by carrying out “fundamental reforms” in forest management and firefighting.
“After this year, nothing should remain as it was before,” he said.
One of the worst hit areas in Portugal was near the city of Lousa in the Coimbra region, where 650 firefighters were battling blazes.
“We went through absolute hell, there was fire everywhere,” said a resident of the town of Penacova.
In a village in the northern district of Viseu, residents used water hoses to try to fight the flames as several homes were consumed.
“Everything happened in 45 minutes, and the fire spread at an incredible rate,” a resident said. “I had never seen anything like that before. It felt like the end of the world. ”