More than 1,000 firefighters are battling Portugal's deadliest forest blaze after it killed at least 62 people over the weekend, Reuters reported on June 19.
Authorities had previously lowered the number of victims, saying that one body had been counted for twice, but the minister later confirmed that the official toll returned to 62.
Approximately 1,000 firefighters are battling the fires that have killed at least 62 people, including a firefighter who died in a hospital.
"What we are seeing is a great tragedy", Costa said.
Almost 60 other people have been injured, including four firefighters, in what Prime Minister Antonio Costa described as "the biggest tragedy of human life that we have known in years".
"We are most likely facing the biggest tragedy of human life that we have known", he said.
About 35 forest fires continued to burn across the country on Monday, with more than 2,000 firefighters and 660 vehicles mobilised.
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Nearly 900 firefighters were still battling the flames around Pedrogao Grande, a town 150 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of Lisbon.
Gomes said eight firefighters were among the injured - four in serious condition.
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Scorching weather, with temperatures above 40C (104F), as well as strong winds and dry woodland after weeks with little rain are fuelling the blazes.
Several villages were hit and people were evacuated.
Interior Minister Jorge Gomes has been quoted as giving the new figure on public broadcaster RTP.
Photo A section of forest in flames on Sunday evening during a wildfire near the village of Mega Fundeira, Portugal. He said authorities were anxious about strong winds that could help spread the blaze further.
Cathelijne Stoof, an environmental science professor at the Netherlands' Wageningen University, said Portugal's wildfire problems stem basically from the gradual depopulation of rural areas in recent decades, leaving fewer people caring for forest areas and the countryside in general.
Firefightes work to put out a forest fire near the village of Fato, central Portugal, June 18, 2017. The European Union said it would provide firefighting aircraft.
Costa tweeted his "deepest regret for the victims. and a word of encouragement and strength for all who help combat this scourge".
Portugal's Prime Minister visited the scene yesterday, and the President has cleared his agenda until tomorrow.
In addition to the Portuguese rescue teams that arrived from the cities of Coimbra, Setubal and Lisbon, two Spanish aircraft were aiding extinction efforts while the arrival of French support was also expected.
"It is a real inferno, we have never seen anything like that", the mayor of Pedrogao Grande Valdemar Alves told reporters, adding that more than 20 villages had been affected.
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