1000s of hectares scorched in southern Portugal summer fires

[senorpepr]

LISBON (AFP) - Thousands of hectares of scrubland, pine forests and eucalyptus groves have been reduced to ashes in fires raging since Monday in Portugal's southern region of Alqueva, officials told a news conference.

Nearly 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) had burned, said forest service head Antonio de Sousa Macedo, after a day of scorching temperatures that reached 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).

About 160 firefighters with dozens of fire-fighting vehicles, as well as helicopters and water-dropping planes, were battling the fire on three fronts Tuesday.

Luis Capoulas, governor of Evora district, said authorities hoped to bring the fire "under control this evening, unless there are any sudden changes in the wind".

Local police have opened a judicial investigation into the blaze.

Aside from the Alqueva fire, more than 80 other blazes were recorded around Portugal Tuesday, including 60 which sprung up during the afternoon. Twelve of the 18 regional districts in the country were affected, said Macedo.

One blaze was encroaching upon a residential area near Santarem, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Lisbon.

During last summer's heatwave, Portugal suffered a devastating wave of forest fires that killed 20 and left about one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) in damage.

Interior Minister Antonio Figueiredo Lopes, who was also at the Lisbon news conference, stressed that Portugal was prepared this year to combat the blazes.

"I can assure you that we have learned our lessons," he said. "We know that the great majority of fires are man-made".

However, the head of the national firefighting service, Fernando Manuel Paiva Monteiro, described the situation of the 1,500 firefighters mobilized so far as "difficult".

According to Macedo, 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of land have been burnt since the beginning of the year. He said that burn rate was roughly what Portugal has experienced by this date, for the past five years.

The devastating heatwave in 2003 was the longest and hottest in Portugal since records began in 1856 and was part of a wider spell of extreme temperatures that gripped much of Europe.

The dry heat then sparked a rash of forest fires which destroyed more than 420,000 hectares (one million acres) -- about five percent of Portugal -- of scrub and woodland as well as roughly 100 homes and claimed 20 lives, including those of two firefighters.

This year 10,000 people have been mobilized to help prevent more forest fires.

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