Police investigators stand by a burnt vehicle on the road between Castanheira de Pera and Figueiro dos Vinhos, central Portugal, Sunday, June 18 2017.
Pope Francis called for prayer on Sunday for the victims of wildfires which killed 62 people, including four children, in central Portugal this weekend.
State broadcaster RTP showed terrifying images of several people on a road trying to escape the intense smoke that had reduced visibility to a few metres.
Four of the firefighters were in critical condition on June 18, Paulo Santos, an operations and emergencies official with the National Relief Operations Command in Lisbon, told CNN.
Central Portugal has become an increasingly popular destination for British residents in recent years, although no exact figures are available as to how many now call the area home. Just over 1,000 firefighters are still tackling that blaze about 90 miles (150km) north of Lisbon.
Interior Ministry official Jorge Gomes said 59 people died from the flames and suffocating smoke, while another two people perished in a traffic accident related to the fires. The European Union has also promised to provide firefighting aircraft.
"Many cars could not get out and people burned to death inside their cars", said Gomes.
Authorities said the number of victims may rise as firefighters inspect the villages affected.
Guterres said he spoke earlier on Sunday with the President of Portugal, Marcelo de Sousa, and with the Prime Minister, António Costa, expressing his deep sadness.
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A vast wildfire has engulfed a central Portuguese town, killing 57 people and injuring dozens more in the European country.
Spain dispatched four water-bombing aircraft Sunday morning, and three firefighting planes arrived from France in the afternoon. "The EU is fully ready to help". She said that, in addition, the country had moved from cooler and damper oak forests in many parts to more commercially viable but fire-hazardous pine and eucalyptus.
Nearly 60 people, including several children, have also been injured as temperatures topped 40C yesterday and making it one of the nation's deadliest fire tragedies. "At 3.30am, my mother-in-law woke me up quickly and we never went to sleep again", she said.
The Portuguese Football Federation changed its Twitter avatar to black to mourn the victims of the fire.
Portugal "has to manage the fuel (fire-feeding vegetation) in the landscape", she said, adding that much vegetation, such as bushes and shrubs, needs to be removed or cleaned up to prevent the fires from spreading fast, and for this, the landowners must be involved.
An alert issued by Portugal's National Authority for Public Safety on Friday warned of an enhanced risk of wildfire ignition and spread due to the hot, windy weather. "Most visits are trouble-free", the British Foreign and Commonwealth office said in a statement. There are concerns strong winds could help spread the blaze further.
Firefighters still battling a huge forest fire yesterday.
Fires on the tourist island of Madeira in August killed three people, while across 2016 around 40 homes were destroyed and 5,400 hectares of land burned.
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