Death toll exceeds 60 in Portugal blazes

Official says half of fatalities were drivers trapped in cars on road

MADRID — A raging forest fire enveloped a stretch of road in central Portugal over the weekend, killing more than 60 people, including at least 30 motorists who were trapped in their cars.

The fire, which was still burning Sunday afternoon, has brought “a dimension of human tragedy that we cannot remember,” Prime Minister António Costa said during a visit to the scorched area around Pedrógão Grande.

The initial deadly blaze started Saturday, and the flames spread along four fronts with “great violence,” said Jorge Gomes, secretary of state for internal administration. By Sunday afternoon, five infernos were raging in central Portugal, he said.

The death toll stood at 61, according to Lusa, the national news agency. Officials said they expected the toll to rise.

Half of the people killed died in their cars, Gomes confirmed, after being hemmed in by the flames while driving along a road through the densely forested area between Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pêra.

Officials said they had found 17 bodies near the road, possibly those of people who had tried to escape on foot once they realized that there was no way to continue driving. Two people were also killed in a car crash.

Several houses were destroyed by the flames. Portuguese television showed people scrambling to leave their homes early Sunday, escorted by firefighters and other rescue teams, as huge flames engulfed hamlets across the dry terrain.

Several roads were cut off by flames and thick smoke as firefighters tried to prevent the fires from spreading.

About 1,600 firefighters, assisted by airplanes and helicopters, were working to contain the damage. Police and military units were called in to help, and EU officials in Brussels activated the bloc’s civil protection mechanism to send reinforcements. Spain sent two planes to help contain the fires.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa paid tribute to the firefighters early Sunday, saying they faced the toughest conditions possible: “temperature, wind and zero humidity.”

He sent a message of “gratitude, comfort and support to all those who have been doing the best that they can.”

ARMANDO FRANCA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Burnt cars block the road Sunday between Castanheira de Pera and Figueiro dos Vinhos, central Portugal. Raging forest fires in central Portugal killed more than 60 people, many of them trapped in their cars as flames swept over a road.