Firefighters Battle Wildfires in Portugal Amidst Favorable Weather Conditions

Thousands of firefighters have largely contained deadly wildfires in Portugal’s Aveiro district after five days of destruction. The flames have engulfed tens of thousands of hectares, destroyed homes, and claimed seven lives. Cooler temperatures and international aid have aided firefighting efforts, although several dozen fires still rage across the country.

Thousands of firefighters tackling deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal had largely doused the flames in the Aveiro district, one of the worst-hit, as of Thursday morning. Efforts are now focused on more than a dozen blazes still raging elsewhere after five days that ravaged tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, destroyed houses, and claimed seven lives. The fires in Oliveira de Azemeis, Albergaria-a-Velha, and Sever da Vouga were no longer listed as active on the civil protection service's fires portal.

The flames left parking lots with lines of burnt cars, trees, and roads with smoke still billowing in Albergaria-a-Velha. "It was horrific, horrible, the fire passed by very quickly because of the wind but it was really bad," resident Maria Rodrigues of Macieira village told Reuters. She worried about her 11 sheep, stating, "Now they don't have anything to eat because there's nothing on the mountain." Cooler air temperatures with more humidity since Wednesday have helped the firefighting efforts following an unseasonably hot streak with gusts of wind fanning the flames.

The weather agency IPMA predicted maximum temperatures of 22-27 degrees Celsius (72-81 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday across the central and northern regions, well below recent days, which exceeded 30 C. On Wednesday, a 270-strong Spanish military emergencies team joined the effort in the central Vizeu district adjacent to Aveiro. Twelve aircraft supported hundreds of firefighters combating flames near Castro Daire. Spain, Italy, France, and Morocco have sent water-bombing aircraft. Data from the European Forest Fire Information Service showed wildfires had burned over 105,000 hectares since Saturday, marking the largest burned area since 2017. Authorities attribute some fires to arson and have arrested at least 14 suspects. (Additional reporting by Miguel Gutierrez and Sergio Goncalves, Writing by Andrei Khalip, Editing by Gareth Jones and Alex Richardson)

(With inputs from agencies.)