Raging wildfires leave 62 dead in Portugal

USA TODAY

Hundreds of soldiers joined firefighters Sunday battling wildfires raging across central Portugal that have killed 62.

Flames and suffocating smoke have killed 60, and another two people died in a traffic accident related to the fires, according to Jorge Gomes, an Interior Ministry official. Officials said many victims died in their cars when flames roared across a road.

Portugal declared Sunday through Tuesday as national days of mourning for the fire, “which has caused an irreparable loss of human life.”

“This is a region that has had fires because of its forests, but we cannot remember a tragedy of these proportions,” said Valdemar Alves, mayor of Pedrogao Grande. “I am completely stunned by the number of deaths.”

State broadcaster RTP showed terrifying images of people on a road trying to escape the intense smoke that had reduced visibility to a few yards. A huge wall of thick smoke and bright red flames towered over the top of trees near houses in the wooded region.

“Yesterday we saw the fire but thought it was very far. I never thought it would come to this side,” resident Isabel Brandao told The Associated Press. “We were afraid the fire would reach us.”

The government said 360 soldiers joined the 700 firefighters battling the blaze that started Saturday. Prime Minister Antonio Costa said crews were having difficulties approaching the area because the fire was “very intense.”

A lightning strike might have sparked the inferno after investigators found a tree hit during a “dry thunderstorm,” the head of the national judicial police told Portuguese media. Dry thunderstorms are frequent when falling water evaporates before reaching the ground because of high temperatures.