Portuguese helicopter pilot dies fighting Wildfires
Pastor Dale Morgan
Portuguese helicopter pilot dies fighting Wildfires*
LISBON, Nov 10 (AFP) Nov 10, 2007
A helicopter fighting forest fires in a national park in northern
Portugal crashed on Saturday, killing the pilot, authorities said.
The aircraft crashed at 2:00 pm (1400 GMT) near Parado do Monte, 360
kilometres (220 miles) north of Lisbon where it was helping tackle fires
in the Peneda-Geres national park close to the Spanish border.
Around 100 firefighters had been deployed to fight four fires in the
national park where dry and unseasonably hot weather have provoked a
number of blazes in forests and undergrowth since the beginning of November.
Another 50 firefighters battled two separate fires also in the north of
the country.
Since the start of the month Portuguese authorities have recorded on
average 268 new fires starting each day across the whole of the country.