Forest fires fanned by hurricane kill 30 in Portugal and Spain
At least 27 people died in fires that ravaged forests in north and central Portugal over the past 24 hours, rescuers said yesterday, as blazes sparked by arsonists and fanned by Hurricane Ophelia left three dead in neighbouring Spain.
In Portugal, prime minister Antonio Costa declared a state of emergency as more than 4,000 firefighters battled 20 major fires raging yesterday.
The 27 deaths, confirmed by Portugal’s national civil protection agency, came four months after 64 people were killed and more than 250 injured in the deadliest fire in the country’s history.
About 520 fire outbreaks on Sunday were caused by “higher than average temperatures for the season and the cumulative effect of drought”, said civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar.
“We went through absolute hell, it was horrible. There was fire everywhere,” said a resident of Penacova town.
Two brothers in their 40s who were from the town and were trying to help put out the blaze were among the dead.
In the north-west Spanish region of Galicia, on the Portuguese border, authorities blamed arson for about 17 fires that caused three deaths.
“They are absolutely intentional fires, caused by people who know what they are doing,” said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the head of the Galicia regional government. The situation remained very worrying, Mr Feijoo said yesterday.
The fires were being fanned by wind gusts of up to 90kph as Hurricane Ophelia moved north off the coast of Spain towards Ireland, Mr Zoido said. “We have not had a situation like this in the past decade.”
Prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who is from Galicia, expressed his condolences to the victims.
Five wildfires were raging near Vigo, Galicia’s biggest city, forcing the evacuation of a shopping mall and a PSA Peugeot Citroen factory on the outskirts of the city.
The flames had reached O Castro, a large hilltop park in the heart of Vigo.
Images broadcast on Spanish television showed residents trying to contain the flames with buckets and pans of water.
The city of about 300,000 residents has opened up two sports centres and booked rooms in three hotels for people who had to evacuate their homes.
At least 10 schools cancelled classes in Vigo, officials said.
Spain’s rail operator Renfe said it had cancelled train service between Vigo and Barcelona and roads in Galicia were closed because of the flames.
Meteorologists say Ophelia is the most powerful hurricane recorded so far east in the Atlantic and the first since 1939 to travel so far north.
Although Ophelia was downgraded to a storm before it hit Ireland, schools there were closed as the country braced for violent winds and rain, with the weather service warning people to remain indoors.