Portuguese rescue workers have evacuated 100 people from the Peneda-Gerês National Park as wildfires in the north of the country intensified despite non-stop efforts by more than 1,000 firefighters.
Interior Minister Rui Pereira told a news briefing the situation in the arid northern woodlands ‘is comparable to a true theatre of war’.
He also praised firefighters for their bravery after two died and several were badly injured in forest fires this week.
He said the government had activated the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism to get additional fire-fighting equipment and was doing all in its power to prevent wildfires from spreading further.
Scorching heat and winds were 'particularly adverse' this year, he said.
In total, fire brigades were combating more than 30 fires in Portugal yesterday.
Officials said some 120 firemen with 20 trucks and four aircraft were working to put out the flames that threatened the homes of those evacuated in Vilar de Soente, in the Peneda-Gerês reserve not far from the border with Spain's Galicia region.
Television footage showed airplanes and heavy helicopters dumping tonnes of water on the burning forest while police and firefighters blocked roads nearby, with flames arching above the melting asphalt.
Mr Pereira said hundreds of fires were registered every day in the country.
Firefighters put out 95% of them the same day.
Many districts in the north have raised the fire threat level to the highest possible this week.
Hundreds of troops were deployed to help the fire brigades.
