TWO more ferocious forest fires have erupted in Portugal – and this time cops suspect the work of arsonists.
Whole villages had to be evacuated, and hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to address the latest fires during a disastrous summer on the Iberian Peninsula.
The two fires sparked nearby within an hour in Pedrógão Grande, central Portugal.
Locals here are already scarred by the memory of a terrible wildfire which killed 66 people just eight years ago.
The first erupted in the village of Pedrógão Grande, terrifyingly close to people’s homes, at around 2:30pm.
A subsequent fire ignited through trees near the village of Graça at around 3:20 pm, leading police to suspect foul play and initiate an investigation.
Flaming material was reported shooting out of this blaze, endangering the crews tackling it.
Five entire villages in the area were forced to evacuate as smoke cascaded into the sky.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the two blazes with from planes and from the ground.
A firefighter elsewhere in Portugal became the fourth person to be killed by the fires this summer.
Four have also lost their lives in Spain – where the blazes are finally being brought under control.
Daniel Esteves, 45, worked for the forest protection company Afocelca.
He was seriously injured on Tuesday night alongside four colleagues, and tragically died on Saturday.
Daniel suffered burns to 75 percent of his body and was the worst injured of the group – the rest of whom are still in hospital in Coimbra.
Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, expressed his condolences to the family of Daniel, who “tragically lost his life while directly fighting the forest fires in Sabugal municipality.”
The amount of land burnt across the Iberian peninsula has hit a total area about the size of the US state of Delaware, based on EU statistics.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), Spain experienced a loss of 403,000 hectares, marking a record, whereas Portugal’s loss amounted to 278,000 hectares this year.
Spanish authorities said the tide seemed to have turned in the fight against the fires, which are mainly raging in the country’s west and northwest.
But the head of Spain’s civil protection and emergencies service, Virginia Barcones, warned there were still 18 “treacherous” blazes alight.
The record-breaking year has been fuelled by dry conditions, heatwaves and strong winds.
