Portugal's National Emergency and Civil Defense Agency said the 11-day forest fires in the central region of the country had been controlled on the 24th, but a thousand firefighters were still waiting on the 25th to prevent the country's largest ever recorded forest fires from resuming.This forest fire burned an area of 64,451 hectares。
AFP quoted Portugal officials as saying,The forest fire was triggered by lightning, affecting seven municipalities in Coimbra, Guada and Branco districts of Portugal. The civil defense system did not detect any new fires on the 25th.
The Portuguese Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation said,The forest fire is the largest on record in the country。 The largest previous forest fire occurred in October 2017, burning 53,000 hectares of land.
Portugal has been hit by wildfires this summer due to high temperatures, according to data released by the European Forest Fire Information System on 22 February, wildfires have hit more than 27,8 million hectares of land since this year.
Preliminary statistics from the Portuguese Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation show that wildfires have exceeded the total of the past year since this year.Portugal was put on national alert this monthAccording to the European Forest Fire Information System, the wildfires in Portugal were the worst in 2017, burning more than 56,3 thousand hectares of land, killing 119 people.
According to Portuguese media reports, wildfires destroyed houses and crops.Four people have been killed since July.The government has announced a number of emergency measures to help disaster-affected areas, including funding for the reconstruction of destroyed houses and providing aid to farmers.
Experts point out that the Iberian Peninsula, where Portugal is located, is being severely affected by climate change, with heatwaves lasting longer and becoming more intense.