Wildfires spread across Portugal

Strong winds are fanning fires Portugal and a thousand firefighters are battling the blazes as authorities to partially evacuate a village.

More than 1,000 firefighters are battling three blazes sweeping across central Portugal, prompting authorities to partially evacuate a village and leaving one person with severe injuries.

Strong winds on Sunday are making it tougher for firefighters to put out the blazes, which started on Saturday afternoon in Castelo Branco, a district 225 kilometres northeast of the capital Lisbon.

One village was partially evacuated as a precaution, Portugal's Civil Protection said, adding that one person was taken by helicopter to a Lisbon hospital with first and second degree burns. Seven firefighters were also injured.

One wildfire made its way to Macao, a municipality in the nearby district of Santarem, where temperatures are expected to reach 34 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

In June 2017, a devastating wildfire in the central town of Pedrogao Grande killed 64 people and injured more than 250. The fire was the worst disaster in modern Portuguese history.


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Published 21 July 2019 11:16am
Source: AAP


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