Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Hundreds of firefighters battle Raging Portuguese
forest-fire blaze
by Staff Writers
Lisbon (AFP) Oct 6, 2011
Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters on Thursday contained a forest
blaze that had raged near the country's western coast for the past
24 hours, the civil protection agency said on its website.
Five helicopters, around 100 vehicles and more than 400
firefighters were sent to the Leira region to tackle the blaze
that broke out on Wednesday following a week of unusually high
temperatures.
The temperature in Lisbon reached 31 degrees (88 degrees
Fahrenheit) Thursday, while some regions further inland saw
temperatures as high as 34 degrees.
Portugal had been hit by a limited number of fires this year, with
the amount of surface area burned from January to September down
71 percent compared to the annual average over the past ten years.