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Article Body TextLisbon — <p>Deadly wildfires raging in Portugal have forced more people to evacuate their homes as crews battled dozens of blazes on Wednesday in the nation's north.</p> <p>Stifling heat and strong winds have fanned a spate of forest fires across the north and centre of the country that have killed seven people dead since the weekend.</p> <p>Civil protection authorities listed 42 active fires on its website on Wednesday and said they had mobilized around 3,900 firefighters and over 1,000 vehicles.</p> <p>In the Gondomar municipality, just outside Porto, authorities carried out more evacuations on Tuesday night.</p> <p>Firefighters battling blazes in Arouca in the hard-hit Aveiro region told local media outlets the situation there was "uncontrollable."</p> <p>Around 20,000 hectares (49,400 acres) of vegetation have burned in the region, south of Porto, since Monday, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).</p> <p>A total of 15 separate fires have passed the 1,000-hectare threshold since the fires began over the weekend, Effis data also showed.</p> <p>Authorities in Aveiro said Tuesday evening that firefighters were on the verge of bringing one group of fires that had spread across a 100-kilometre (60-mile) perimeter under control.</p> <p>Three firefighters died on Tuesday when their vehicle was trapped by the flames, civil protection authorities said, bringing the fire-related toll up to seven, with some 50 injured.</p> <p>A 28-year-old Brazilian who worked for a forestry company died after he become trapped by the flames as he tried to collect some times. Two others suffered heart attacks and a volunteer firefighter died while taking a break from battling the flames.</p> <p>Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.</p> <p>The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.</p> <p> </p>
Content TypeText
LanguageEnglish
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Subtitles / Dubbing AvailableNo
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateSeptember 18, 2024 07:08 EDT
BylineAgence France-Presse
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
