Portuguese Villages Evacuated After Forest Fires

Some 1,800 firefighters and soldiers were yesterday battling half a dozen blazes in Portugal as one man was reported to have died and dozens more were evacuated from villages.

The fires were mainly in wooded rural areas of central and northern Portugal. The worst of them was at Serra da Estrela, 180 miles north-east of Lisbon.

As Portugal copes with the effects of its worst drought for 60 years, the forest blazes were leaving firefighters "close to exhaustion", one official said. Army engineers were called in to bulldoze firebreaks in some areas.

The body of an elderly man was found by firefighters after a blaze surrounded his home near Alvaiazere, about 110 miles north of Lisbon, the civil protection office said.

The drought is Portugal's worst since at least 1945, when 86% of the country was in severe or extreme drought. Government officials say drought has extended to the whole country, costing the agricultural sector the equivalent of nearly 1.5% of gross domestic product so far. Some 26,000 people have reportedly received water from trucks since last week.

"The government does not rule out declaring a public disaster," the agriculture minister, Jaime Silva, told parliament.

Spain is also in its worst drought since records began in the 1940s, and in western France water levels are at their lowest since 1976. Eleven firefighters died in Spain on Sunday fighting a forest fire.