Three persons, including an elderly woman have been killed in forest fires sweeping across Portugal.
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Firefighting vehicles line the street in the historic center of Funchal in the Madeira islands on August 9. Residents described chaotic nighttime scenes, with people fleeing the flames by vehicle at high speed on the wrong side of the road.
Continental Portugal has also been experiencing wildfires for several days after temperatures rose to 35 degrees Celsius.
Funchal, which has a population of 111,000, is a big tourist destination.
Madeira’s Regional governor Miguel Albuquerque said at a press conference that 80 people were in hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
The blaze, fuelled by hot weather and strong winds, led to the evacuation of about 1,000 local people and tourists in the archipelago off north-western Africa.
On Tuesday a 24-year-old man was arrested accused of starting a fire in the mountains of São Roque outside Funchal.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from the Portuguese Island of Madeiras following a wildfire which has stretched into its third day.
On Tuesday evening, Portugal’s civil protection service said more than 4,000 firefighters were attending to 150 separate blazes, with seven major fires now out of control.
Tourism is the mainstay of Madeira’s economy.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and hotels.
Portuguese Premier Antonio Costa has announced the deployment of military reinforcements from Lisbon and the government has activated the European Union emergency plan, securing assistance from two spanish and one Italian firefighting planes.
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Authorities hope that cooler temperatures forecast for Wednesday can help bring the blaze under control.
