"Uncontrollable" Fires Rage Across Portugal - Villages Evacuated - AFP

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Nearly 2,200 firefighters were battling dozens of wildfires in parched Portugal on Tuesday, including 10 major blazes which were raging out of control and forced the evacuation of several mountain villages, officials said. The fire crews were backed by nearly 600 vehicles, 29 water-dropping aircraft and 176 soldiers as they tackled fires that have hit the centre and north of the country since Friday amid scorching temperatures, the civil protection agency said.

Emergency services workers were evacuating residents from villages in the path of the largest fire near the central town of Pampilhosa da Serra which has been burning since Saturday, a spokesman for the mayor's office in the town said. "The fire is completely uncontrollable," Jorge Custodio told Lisbon-based Radio Renascenca. "It covers such a large area and has such wide fronts that even with more time and aircraft it is still really difficult to fight it," he added.

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Local firefighters said reinforcements from other parts of Portugal were being called in to battle the blaze, which was burning in a thickly-wooded area that was very difficult to reach. "There are no roads at all to get to it," Serta firefigher commander Alvaro Monteiro told Radio Renascenca.

Wildfires have destroyed up to 118,000 hectares (292,000 acres) of forest and scrubland so far this year in Portugal, according to government estimates, compared with 130,000 hectares for all of 2004. Eight firefighters have died battling wildfires this year, including two over the weekend, more than during the previous two years combined.

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