Wildfires in Portugal blamed for at least six deaths as Europe sends aircraft to help

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Five thousand firefighters struggled Tuesday to contain multiple wildfires raging across northern Portugal that are blamed for causing at least six deaths including four firefighters and forcing an unknown number of residents to flee their homes.

Some 100 fires reported by national authorities stretched the firefighting brigades. Authorities have yet to give figures on how many people have had to evacuate and how many homes have been lost. Over 50 people have been injured.

Civil Protection official André Fernandes said that three firefighters had died while traveling by road Tuesday, but it was not known if their vehicle had crashed before it was engulfed by flames. The deaths of two civilians were confirmed, one from burns and the other from cardiac arrest, and one more firefighter died from an unspecified illness while on duty, over the weekend.

With no rain forecast, national authorities prolonged an alert for fires until Thursday. The measure included a ban on farmers using heavy machinery to harvest crops because of the risk of sparks that could start more fires.

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The hot, dry conditions behind the outbreaks in Portugal came while downpours caused flooding in central Europe.

“I would like to say within a word of calm and tranquility we also need to be realistic,” Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said late on Monday. “We will endure difficult hours in the coming days. We need to prepare for it and we need to come together for it.”

Among the hardest hit areas is the district of Aveiro, south of the northern city of Porto, but blazes were also raging out of control in other wooded areas. Portuguese state broadcaster RTP showed images of houses burnt to the ground and smoke billowing over charred terrain in the area of Castro de Aire.

Ground units were supported by Portuguese water-dropping aircraft. Fellow European Union members Spain, France Italy and Greece have committed to providing eight more planes to help local forces.

“The EU stands with Portugal as it battles major wildfires,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a message on X. “I thank France, Greece, Italy and Spain for their rapid reaction. This is EU solidarity at its best.”

Still, televised images showed some residents wielding tree branches and buckets of water to try to save their homes from encroaching fires.

Portugal was devasted by massive fires in 2017 that killed over 120 people and burned over half a million hectares.

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Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.