Fire destroyed 30 homes and led to the evacuation of more than a thousand people in the city of Funchal. Nearly 3,400 firefighters with 18 water-dumping planes and some 1,160 vehicles were in action.
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Footage showed plumes of smoke over central Funchal on Tuesday and residents using hosepipes to try to quench fires as burning embers were carried by the wind.
Mainland Portugal has also been struck by a spate of forest fires since Friday with the north of the country, where temperatures have surged to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), particularly badly affected. Flights were also disrupted at Madeira Airport due to high levels of smoke.
Temperatures in excess of 35C have led to more than 12 major fires in mainland Portugal, majority in the north-west of the country. Residents described chaotic nighttime scenes, with people fleeing the flames by vehicle at high speed on the wrong side of the road.
Tourism is the mainstay of Madeira’s economy. Two hospitals and two homes for the elderly have been evacuated, with 950 people sheltered in army barracks and others housed in schools around the island.
Firefighters said steep hills, dense woodland and large amounts of dry pine trees after a recent drought had made it particularly hard to tackle the flames once they began to spread.
On Tuesday a 24-year-old man was arrested accused of starting a fire in the mountains of São Roque outside Funchal. By Wednesday afternoon it had recovered 102 of them, SPAD Funchal said on its Facebook page.
The Portuguese interior ministry said on Wednesday it had requested help from the European Union.
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The fire across the regional capital have been mostly taken under control, however several were still raging the other parts, regional governor Miguel Albuquerque told a televised news conference.
