LISBON: Fifty people were evacuated from a small village situated in Portugal's Peneda-Geres national park on Thursday, where three fires were still burning, the civil defence agency said.
Rescue services evacuated 43 adults and seven children for safety reasons from their mountainous village of Vilar de Soente, near Arcos de Valdevez in the country's northwest, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
Firefighters work on a fire front on the Arada mountain near Sao Pedro do Sul, northern Portugal.
In Peneda-Geres, Portugal's only national park, more than 230 firefighters managed to contain two fires but three more were still burning after more than 48 hours.
France sent two Canadair water-dropping aircraft under the European mutual aid system on Thursday to help the Portuguese firefighters push back the encroaching flames in the area.
In central Portugal, 145 firefighters used helicopters to beat back a fire, raging for the last 36 hours in the Serra da Estrela nature park, which is included in the European Network of Biogenetic Reserves.
The fire also forced authorities to reduce the seventh stage of Portugal's cycling tour by 40 kilometres.
A shift in weather conditions has reduced to 10 the number of "significant" fires burning across Portugal, compared to 30 major fires on Wednesday evening.
Since late July, strong winds and a heatwave have whipped up devastating fires, mostly in forested areas of Portugal's north and central regions, sparing residents' homes.
Two firefighters were killed this week, including a 21-year-old woman who died after becoming encircled by flames.
Portugal's Interior Minister Rui Pereira said 2010 has been a "very difficult year" concerning the number of fires registered - more than 400 have been recorded daily since August 6.
He said however that the surface area burned since the beginning of the year is "inferior to the average over the last decade."
According to the National Forest Authority (ANF), the fires have destroyed 19,346 hectares of forest and bushland between January and the end of the July.
Last year, more than 86,000 hectares were destroyed, significantly less than the 338,000 hectares burnt in 2005, a black year for Portugal.
- AFP/de
