Raging forest fire kills at least 62 in Portugal

Official: Most died trying to flee in cars

PEDROGAO GRANDE, Portugal — A raging forest fire in central Portugal killed at least 62 people as they desperately tried to flee, charring cars and trucks as it swept over roads. The disaster — the worst tragedy Portugal has experienced in decades — shook the nation, with the president declaring that the country’s pain “knows no end.”

Almost 24 hours after the deaths Saturday night, fires were still churning across the forested hillsides of central Portugal. Police and firefighters were searching charred areas of the forest and isolated homes, looking for more bodies.

A huge wall of thick smoke and bright red flames towered over the tops of trees in the forested Pedrogao Grande area, 95 miles northeast of Lisbon where a lightning strike was believed to have sparked the blaze Saturday. Investigators found a tree that was hit during a “dry thunderstorm,” the head of the national judicial police said.

Dry thunderstorms are frequent when falling water evaporates before reaching the ground because of high temperatures. Portugal is prone to forest fires in the dry summer months and temperatures as high as 104 degrees hit the area in recent days.

At least four other significant wildfires were burning Sunday elsewhere in Portugal but the one in Pedrogao Grande was responsible for all the deaths.

Interior Minister Constanca Urbano de Sousa said the death toll had risen to 62 by the end of Sunday.

Interior Ministry official Jorge Gomes said firefighting crews were having difficulties battling the fire, which was “very intense” in at least two of its four fronts. He said authorities were worried about strong winds that could help spread the blaze further.

More than 350 soldiers on Sunday joined the 700 firefighters who have been struggling to put out the blaze.

The forest fire deaths were the biggest in memory in Portugal, which saw 25 Portuguese soldiers die fighting ”

State broadcaster RTP showed terrifying images of several people on a road trying to escape the intense smoke that had reduced visibility to a few yards. A young man shared a bottle of water with a distraught woman as she stumbled down the road.

Gomes said at least 30 people died inside their cars as they tried to flee between the towns of Figueiro dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera. He said 17 others died just outside their cars or by the road, 11 people died in the forest, two people died in a car accident related to the fire and information was missing on the other deaths.

Gomes said 54 people were also injured in the fire, 5 of them seriously, including four firefighters and a minor.