Portugal fights fire as heatwave lingers

EMERGENCY services in Portugal kept up their fight yesterday against a four-day wildfire on the south coast that threatened to engulf a hillside town overnight, as sweltering weather continued in Europe.

The Civil Protection Agency said 44 people required medical assistance as the blaze passed by the outskirts of Monchique, 250 kilometers south of Lisbon. A 72-year-old woman was seriously hurt.

Authorities said that more than 1,100 firefighters with 327 vehicles and eight aircraft were battling the blaze that erupted amid a heatwave.

The rest of Europe has also felt the torrid recent weather.

In France, where four nuclear reactors have been temporarily closed due to the heat, three cities banned the most polluting cars from the roads because of heat-linked ozone pollution.

The heatwave in France is expected to last until Thursday, with temperatures peaking today.

In Norway, authorities warned motorists to watch out for reindeer and sheep taking shelter from the heat in tunnels.

Neighboring Sweden has been fighting an uncommon number of wildfires this summer, even above the Arctic Circle, and a European Union official pointed his finger at climate change.

“We are facing a new reality,” EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said. As a result, the EU must become “collectively (be) better prepared and stronger in responding to multiple disasters across the continent,” he said.

In Portugal, parts of the south and northeast of the country remained at “extreme risk” of wildfires yesterday, according to the national weather agency.

Spain sent two Canadair water-dropping planes across the border yesterday to help efforts around Monchique.

Overnight, dozens of homes and a hotel were evacuated around the town of about 2,000 people.

The wind-driven fire has been racing across tinder-dry pine and eucalyptus forest in a largely inaccessible hill range behind the famous beaches of Portugal’s Algarve vacation region.

Plumes of black smoke have blown across beaches popular with European tourists.