Heatwave eases in fire-ravaged Portugal

Soldiers sent to help as 800 firefighters battle blaze for third day

Temperatures in Portugal, at the crest of a European heatwave, began to ease from near record levels yesterday, but a forest fire raged for a third day in the south, battled by 800 firefighters and 12 aircraft.

The heatwave has brought drought and wildfires to Europe from Greece, where 91 people died in a fire in July, to Sweden.

In parts of Portugal temperatures climbed to nearly 47 degrees Celsius on Thursday and Saturday, just off the country’s record of 47.3C and Europe’s high of 48C set in Athens in 1977.

Flames have consumed more than 1,000 hectares of forest, an area the size of over 1,200 soccer fields, in the hilly Monchique area in the southern Algarve region popular with tourists. Authorities deployed 130 soldiers to help with the efforts.

“It’s a terrible setting and considering the weather conditions it will not get better today,” said civil protection commander Col. Manuel Cordeiro.

Wildfires last year killed 114 people in Portugal’s worst such tragedy on record and authorities were this time quick to evacuate more than 100 people from several villages around Monchique. TV footage showed burnt out cars and charred buildings the villagers had left behind. Six people were hurt while trying to escape another blaze in Estremoz near the Spanish border on Saturday, authorities said. That blaze has since been put out.

Firefighters from Portugal and Spain were battling a fire near Badajoz in southwestern Spain and authorities issued a warning that the entire southern region of Extremadura is at an extreme risk of wildfires.