Raging forest fires in central Portugal killed at least 62 people, many of them trapped in their cars as flames swept over a road, in what the prime minister on Sunday called "the biggest tragedy" the country has experienced in years.
More than 2,000 firefighters were battling Monday to contain the fires after one of Portugal's deadliest tragedies in decades. By Sunday afternoon, five blazes were raging in central Portugal, he said.
A firefighter works to put out a forest fire near the village of Fato, central Portugal on June 18, 2017.
The reasons why are many.
Portugal was sweltering under a severe heatwave over the weekend, with temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius in several regions.
"I express my closeness to the beloved people of Portugal following the devastating fire", Francis said. The forest industry, especially the production of paper pulp, accounts for around 3 percent of the country's GDP. Investigators found a tree that was hit during a "dry thunderstorm", the head of the national judicial police said.
Police chief Almeida Rodrigues blamed dry thunderstorms for the blaze, ruling out arson, and saying a tree had been struck by lightning. Others say the fires flared up so quickly because landowners hadn't obeyed the law and cleared their plots of undergrowth.
The government declared three days of mourning.
There are fears for two firefighters who are missing while four of their colleagues are described as being in a serious condition in hospital.
Portugal has lots of experience but seems short on equipment and finances.
It spread fast and the firefighters were battling 156 fires across the country on Sunday.
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Water-dropping planes from Spain, France and Italy arrived as part of a European Union co-operation programme but they were grounded in some places because thick smoke limited visibility, officials said.
At their height, 156 forest fires drew almost 1,700 firefighters to try to contain them.
He said it was thought to have been sparked by a lightning strike. Another seventeen bodies were found outside the cars on the road leading to the IC8 motorway. On the main approach into town are miles of burnt, smoldering forest.
But Paulo Fernandes, a forest researcher at Portugal's Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro University, notes that around 90 percent of landowners have smallholdings, making it hard for authorities to oversee them all.
Ideally, he said, there should be firebreaks such as cleared woodland or farmland that help to stop a blaze in its tracks. Firefighters did "all they could" when faced with the blaze, he added.
"Portugal knows exactly what it needs to do, and that is the sad thing about the current situation", Stoof told the Associated Press.
These forest fires have become one of the most fatal in recent memories. "It was not possible to do more than what has been done" in prevention and the immediate response.
"We were afraid the fire would reach us".
There were four children among the victims of the fires that started yesterday, the BBC reported.
Also a year ago, a fierce wildfire caused massive evacuation in Portuguese island of Madeira.
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