More than 3,000 firefighters battled alongside ordinary Portuguese citizens desperate to save their homes from several wildfires that raged across the European country on Thursday, fanned by extreme temperatures and drought conditions.
The central part of the country has been particularly hard hit by a spate of blazes this week.
In the village of Bemposta, residents used garden hoses to spray down their lawns and the roofs of their houses in hope that they could save them from the raging wall of red flames that approached through the wooden hills late on Wednesday.
“It began spreading towards that way (the right), the wind was blowing that way towards the mountain,” said 88-year-old Antonio Carmo Pereira, while pointing to the flames on the outskirts of his village. “I could see the view, but in a few minutes I couldn’t see anything, just smoke.
“(It’s) dangerous, yes. It’s surrounding all the houses,” he said. “I am afraid, but where can I go? Jump into a water tank? Let me stay here and look.”
More than 800 firefighters still fought on in the Leiria district, where Bemposta is located, on Thursday morning.
Temperatures in the interior of the Atlantic country were forecast to hit 44 C (111 F) during the day as the mass of hot and dry air blown up from Africa continues to linger over the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula.
In June, 96% of Portugal was classified as being in either in “extreme” or “severe” drought.
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